Health
(2009-11-11)
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SEATTLE, WA
(KPLU) -
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There's new scientific evidence about a difference between the sexes. A Seattle researcher has found that when a major illness strikes, men tend to abandon their marriages more readily than women.
Dr. Marc Chamberlain, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, specializes in brain cancer. He noticed something about his female patients--many of their husbands were abandoning them. A colleague at the University of Utah, Dr. Michael Glantz, was noticing the same thing.
So they designed a study to find out if the impression is true. They enrolled 515 people with brain cancer, other cancers and multiple sclerosis. They found 1-in-5 women who are married and diagnosed with brain cancer are going to be separated or divorced within 6 months after diagnosis. But just 1-in-30 sick men will be abandoned by their wives. The study is published in the journal Cancer.
You can debate why that's so. It's worth noting that most couples do stay married, especially if they've been married a long time. Their study didn't look at why. But Chamberlain lists some of the obvious ideas. Perhaps, he says, "men don't make commitments, or they don't look at spouse, family and home as all-important." Or, maybe something in our culture doesn't prepare men to be caregivers. Or, something more complex could be going on.
This is the first study on the topic, so it needs to be confirmed in other populations. It might be promising to see if the results are similar outside American or European cultures.
The problem is, divorce has health consequences. Those cancer patients who stayed married were less likely to end up in the hospital or need anti-depressants, and more likely to complete radiation treatment -all of which speak to the need for support. Chamberlain hopes to get funding for another study looking at possible interventions, ways to help women, and their husbands, when cancer or other major illnesses strike.
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