Althouse: "On average, married heart attack victims arrived at the hospital half an hour sooner than those who were not married."

July 19, 2011

"On average, married heart attack victims arrived at the hospital half an hour sooner than those who were not married."

"But when the researchers analyzed the data separately for men and women, they found that while married men were more than 60 percent less likely to arrive late than their single peers, there was no statistically significant difference between married and single women."

This is like that asking-for-directions thing, isn't it? Women are more inclined to seek help, while men like to try to solve problems on their own?

Should unmarried men read this and think I should get a woman, because it might save my life? Of course not! We don't know the full causal effect of these wives. Sure, they got their man to the hospital faster, but why did the man have the heart attack? Maybe she stressed him out with all the nagging about other things he was always supposed to seeking help with, things he could do by himself, wanted to do for himself, and wanted that wife to believe he could do.

NOTE: Stereotypes refer to averages within groups, not what real human individuals do. Personally, I'm not the help-seeking type. I'm just responding to a newspaper article on the level at which it is pitched.

44 comments:

KCFleming said...: "...married heart attack victims arrived at the hospital half an hour sooner than those who were not married,"

...to their great consternation.; 7/19/11, 7:37 AM
Scott M said...: are more inclined to seek help, while men like to try to solve problems on their own?

You'd better do the blogging equivalent of ducking.

Should unmarried men read this and think I should get a woman, because it might save my life?

Did they say married to a woman or just married? There's a difference these days, I've noticed.; 7/19/11, 7:39 AM
Phil 314 said...: Looks like Mom is on one of her google adventures again.

Swinging from link to link; 7/19/11, 7:41 AM
Curious George said...: AA: "This is like that asking-for-directions thing, isn't it? Women are more inclined to seek help, while men like to try to solve problems on their own?"

No, women are more inclined to seek help, while men like to try to watch the end of the ballgame.; 7/19/11, 7:43 AM
Robert Cook said...: I think when a person is part of a "a couple," each partner will tend to notice signs of ill health in his or her partner, and will likely encourage the (possibly) ailing partner to seek medical attention. A single person may ignore symptoms of ill health, or deny they're serious, or simply forego seeing a doctor in any case for a variety of reasons.

In short, one may be more likely to seek help if encouraged to do so by someone close, and more likely NOT to seek help if there is no one close who can or will ratify that there is a reason to do so.; 7/19/11, 7:54 AM
traditionalguy said...: Yes, this is true in my experience.

When a sudden pain happens to a man, our first reaction is to tough it out and wait and see.

But a wife will have the EMTs at the house in 7 minutes applying nitroglycerin patches and aspirin.

The EMTs will have a nearby helicopter they place you into and fly over the traffic clogged streets to a cardiac equipped hospital in 20 minutes.

The cardiac equipped hospital will have surgery prepped and started in 7 minutes.

Time counts, especially when during the last 9 minutes you are flatlined dead.

And then along comes ObamaCare will first spend weeks getting a ruling from the appropriate panel before money is wasted that could have been dumped into the great co2 is pollution hoax.; 7/19/11, 7:54 AM
vet66 said...: That thirty minutes lead time is probably the time it took to call 911 and the arrival of the paramedics. After a check of the patient's vitals he is transported to the emergency room if the situation warrants it. It is always good to have an advocate to make the decisions that the husband either cannot or will not make.

A device around your neck that transmits data to a call center when the victim is unable to reach a phone can be lifesaving, especially if the person who has fallen remembers to use it. Elderly women who live alone are particularly at risk due to lack of bone density. Couples can look out for each other in times of need otherwise it is recommended that some sort of fall down alert system can summon help when needed.; 7/19/11, 7:58 AM
AllenS said...: This will all change when we finally have a choice between a blue and red pill.; 7/19/11, 7:58 AM
Abdul Abulbul Amir said...: .

Women are more inclined to seek help, while men like to try to solve problems on their own?

The wife and I are just the opposite. I ask directions at the first opportunity, she never.; 7/19/11, 8:01 AM
Robert Cook said...: "And then along comes ObamaCare will first spend weeks getting a ruling from the appropriate panel before money is wasted..."

But why would a govt. panel convene to decide whether you can spend your own money or not?

After all, all "Obamney Care" will do is mandate that you must buy health insurance if you do not already have it. Which means, YOU'RE paying the premiums, and YOU'RE paying whatever medical costs won't be covered by your policy.; 7/19/11, 8:02 AM
KCFleming said...: Soon enough, it won't matter whether or not you're married.

If you're over 70, the ambulance won't come either way.

Or they'll just send the hearse.
'I'm not dead yet...'; 7/19/11, 8:03 AM
KCFleming said...: "But why would a govt. panel convene to decide whether you can spend your own money or not?"

The Commerce Clause says so.

And what's with this "your own money' claptrap?
What are you, a capitalist?; 7/19/11, 8:06 AM
MadisonMan said...: Did you and Meade read this article before you met?; 7/19/11, 8:06 AM
ndspinelli said...: Unmarried men should read this and say I need to exercise and eat better. Women can be good @ getting men to eat healthier. Look @ older single mens grocery carts..it's all processed shit. Single men don't cook, they eat fast food and processed shit. And, as an aside having nothing to do w/ heart health, they eat like pigs..smacking their lips and burping. Many men need women for no other reason than this. I'm one that doesn't. The men in my family have always cooked. I do virtually all of the cooking. However, I am a distinct minority.; 7/19/11, 8:15 AM
traditionalguy said...: Cookie...The "all buy insurance trick" is only temporary for eliminating the insurance industry by squeezing it financially.

The end game of ObamaCare is single payer nationalized health care. That means we might get access to a poor cousin of today's VA medical system.

Yes, the truly wealth Democrat-fascist shoguns will have a system for themselves, but the middleclass whose money will have long since been inflated to water will have no services available for them to buy.

Yours isn't a real question, Cookie.

The Tea Party was a reaction to this getting Cookie style false mush in place of reality answers concerning life or death issues.; 7/19/11, 8:18 AM
Hagar said...: This article says we are part Neanderthal, and the proof is found on the X chromosome, not the Y.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110718085329.htm

Take that, Professor!; 7/19/11, 8:26 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Cookie...The 'all buy insurance trick' is only temporary for eliminating the insurance industry by squeezing it financially."

Hardly. Mandating that citizens must buy insurance is a gift of a captive audience to the insurance companies. If it were not something they wanted, it wouldn't have happened.

"The end game of ObamaCare is single payer nationalized health care."

You have more faith than I that Obama has any sort of ulterior motive or plan to do something that might help those in need. We need and should have single payer nationalized health care, but it is certainly not the intended end game of the Obamney Care plan.; 7/19/11, 8:27 AM
Scott M said...: We need and should have single payer nationalized health care

Really? And someone that's taken pains to save for medical care and has been successfully (and with significant savings) managing my family's HSA for years NEEDS and SHOULD have to go to the federal government for care? How does that come down on the side of personal liberty, Cook?; 7/19/11, 8:33 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Yes, the truly wealth Democrat-fascist shoguns will have a system for themselves...."

Why leave out the Republican-fascist shoguns? Don't think they won't take advantage of any spoils available to them that their policies will leave out of the hands of the citizenry. After all, they're past masters at fleecing the rubes in the name of Gawd and country.; 7/19/11, 8:34 AM
MarkW said...: Not surprising -- heart attack symptoms in women are different and less obviously connected to the heart--many women don't realize they're having a heart attack:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/heart-attack-symptoms-women-miss/story?id=12823615; 7/19/11, 8:36 AM
Scott M said...: After all, they're past masters at fleecing the rubes in the name of Gawd and country.

The leftists just do it in the name of the country, leaving the rubes with next to nothing, all in the name of egalitarian utopia.; 7/19/11, 8:37 AM
Sal said...: When a man says he's having a heart attack, the wife stops what she's doing and calls 911.

When a woman says she's having a heart attack, the husbands stops and thinks: When she speaks, I hear crazy.; 7/19/11, 8:41 AM
Robert Cook said...: ScottM,

Who says national health care in this country would preclude those with the funds to do so from buying private health care? This is available in countries that offer national health care:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-tier_health_care

Notwithstanding that this is commonly available presently in countries where "socialized" health care is offered, we have not set up a single payer system here. If we were ever to set up such a service, its form is not preordained or writ in stone; we could craft a plan that would serve the majority who would need or prefer national health care, while allowing for those with the funds to pay for private health services to do so.

Again, this is done elsewhere.; 7/19/11, 8:42 AM
Scott M said...: RC

The company that I have used to manage my HSA for years sent out a letter in January stating in no uncertain terms that they were going out of business specifically due to what Obamacare is going to do to HSA's in general and their costs in particular. In other words, the very affordable and effective method I have worked out with my own time, initiative, and labor, is being gutted thanks to your statists.; 7/19/11, 8:46 AM
El Presidente said...: It probably has more to do with the fact that men have "traditional" cardiac symptoms while women do not. Men typically have pain in chest, jaw with radiation to the left arm. Women can have those symptoms but often have fatigue and indigestion which are not generally associated with heart attack.

I'm sure there is a way to spin this into the man's fault or female superiority.; 7/19/11, 9:36 AM
Scott M said...: RC

No opinions on how getting the IRS involved on my over-the-counter medicines is good for everyone? How HSA's, one of the best methods of paying for health care, will be eviscerated in the process of installing Obamacare?; 7/19/11, 9:49 AM
The Drill SGT said...: I had a relativily major heart attack that had a small impact on heart function. (more about that in a second).

This January, I thought I might be having another, wasn't sure. What I was sure of was that if I survived, my wife would give me a ration of $hit for not being treated. It was a compressed nerve in my elbow that manifests as tingling in my left arm (the first symptom of my only heart attack)

lessons that can't be repeated enough (watch pogo tell me I'm wrong).

1. research in advance and know which hospitals in your area have good stats on heart attacks. In the Dc area, from North to South, John's Hopkins (MD), Washington Hospital Center (DC), Fairfax Innova (VA). Go where they have good results
2. at the first sign, chew a couple of aspirin. chew. Aspirin is a blood thinner. Unless you know you have a bleeding ulcer or are about to cut your arm off with a chainsaw, a couple of aspirin wont hurt you, no matter what. Those aspirin may buy you a couple more minutes before you start getting heart damage.; 7/19/11, 10:06 AM
edutcher said...: The Blonde is forever assessing me, especially if I have a little trouble during any exertion. I only would have to look funny and we'd be on our way.

Ann Althouse said...

Should unmarried men read this and think I should get a woman, because it might save my life? Of course not! We don't know the full causal effect of these wives. Sure, they got their man to the hospital faster, but why did the man have the heart attack? Maybe she stressed him out with all the nagging about other things he was always supposed to seeking help with, things he could do by himself, wanted to do for himself, and wanted that wife to believe he could do.

Said the woman who sends her dutiful husband into the lions' den to record the latest assault on freedom in Madison WI.

This is like that asking-for-directions thing, isn't it? Women are more inclined to seek help, while men like to try to solve problems on their own?

I don't think as many women would say, "Uh oh, I'm having a heart attack". That's still a guy thing in most minds.

Robert Cook said...

"Yes, the truly wealth Democrat-fascist shoguns will have a system for themselves...."

Why leave out the Republican-fascist shoguns?

Cook forgets Tippytoes' Permanent Democrat Majority. This is all part of the master plan.

PS Cook thinks his position at the Daily Worker is going to save him. He hasn't heard about Zeke Emanuel's uUseful Lives, yet.; 7/19/11, 10:20 AM
Triangle Man said...: @Drill SGT

Recommendation 1a) Move to within 5 minutes of the best heart center. 2a) Just before you chew the aspirin, call 911.; 7/19/11, 10:48 AM
Triangle Man said...: I'm sure there is a way to spin this into the man's fault or female superiority.

Yes, the spin is/was that male physicians do/did not appreciate the differences and dismissed women's symptoms causing increased deaths.; 7/19/11, 10:51 AM
Chip S. said...: There's another relevant stereotype: Married women are more likely to be alone during the day than are married men.; 7/19/11, 11:06 AM
Anonymous said...: NOTE: Stereotypes refer to averages within groups, not what real human individuals do.

Averages within groups *are* what real human individuals do, just not all of them. And in fact, since the average many times corresponds to the peak of the bell curve, it's what *most* human individuals do.; 7/19/11, 11:10 AM
Sal said...: Yes, the spin is/was that male physicians do/did not appreciate the differences and dismissed women's symptoms causing increased deaths.

There's a billboard on Madison's Beltline from a local health care provider. Their pitch is that they care about women's health issues. Does that make them stand out from the crowd?; 7/19/11, 11:15 AM
jamboree said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/19/11, 11:48 AM
Robert Cook said...: "RC

"No opinions on how getting the IRS involved on my over-the-counter medicines is good for everyone? How HSA's, one of the best methods of paying for health care, will be eviscerated in the process of installing Obamacare?"

No, because I don't know anything about HSAs, never having used one, or whether they will be eviscerated as a result of Obamney care, and I don't know anything about the IRS getting involved in your over-the-counter medications.

By the way, don't assume I was or am in favor of Obamney Care...I wasn't and amn't. It doesn't really solve the problem of millions of Americans lacking affordable care and it has poisened the well for real health care reform...at least for years to come.; 7/19/11, 11:53 AM
Scott M said...: It doesn't matter if you are for or against Obamacare. You're a statist, if no other than on this topic. Forget Obamacare. What you want is for this government to take from the productive to cover the unproductive and do so with central control and all the ills that entails.

You seem to casually insist that I pay more for something I don't want, need, or use, in order to provide this wasteful leviathan with MORE revenue in which to allow MORE waste and fraud to provide really shitty care for a minority of people.

Here's an idea, let's get those people off their asses and allow them to become productive. Once they have their own lives invested, I guarantee my way will look more attractive to them than living on the dole for generations.; 7/19/11, 12:03 PM
Robert Cook said...: "What you want is for this government to take from the productive to cover the unproductive...."

I want the government to use tax revenues for the common good, to pay for that which we all need but which is increasingly unaffordable and inaccesible to more and more of us.

You scorn those who cannot pay for their own insurance or health care as the "unproductive", yet there are many people who cannot find work; who are unable to work; who work but who do not receive health insurance through their employers, or who cannot afford to pay for whatever benefits their employers may offer; who may have the means but who cannot find insurers who will take their business due to "pre-exising conditions" that render them too risky; and people who think they have it all--good jobs, good pay, seemingly good health insurance coverage--yet who, when they or their families are struck by catastrophic illness or injury, discover that there are expenses their insurers will not cover and who are still rendered bankrupt.

We accept the use of tax revenues to pay for bridges, roads, highways, dams, reservoirs, schools, police and fire services, and so forth. It is appropriate for the government of the people to apportion tax revenues to pay for services that serve the public good. Accessible health care is a service that serves the public good.

Waging war, committing torture and mass murder to fight a nonexistent boogeyman who can appear anywhere, anytime, in any number or guise as (we deem) necessary to justify our squandering of the public's treasure serves no one's good, except for the swine who aggrandize their wealth and power at cost of lives here and abroad, the rule of law, the constitution, and the destruction of a just (or even functioning) society.

If that makes me a "statist," (I don't know what the term means, actually), fine.; 7/19/11, 1:47 PM
Scott M said...: Breakthrough.; 7/19/11, 1:52 PM
george said...: My mother in law has saved her husband at least twice that I know of by making him go to the hospital. Men are pretty damn stubborn about not going to the doctor. We think we can tough it out like we did that time we dislocated our arm playing football.

I don't think women have the same mentality. That is why a pairing between a man and woman is more than the sum of its parts. It's like that man who effectively fed himself to the bear to save his wife. Had that not happened she could have just as easily saved his life later on by making him go to the doctor.

But here is the catch, men get criticized for being stubborn in one instance but the women are never criticized for not being stubborn or brave and facing down the bear so their husband can escape. And frankly, I think most men are OK with that.; 7/19/11, 4:04 PM
Scott M said...: And frankly, I think most men are OK with that.

It's not that we're necessarily okay with it. It's just that we want peace and quiet and "being okay with it" is the surest way for that to happen.; 7/19/11, 4:07 PM
Peter said...: Perhaps the difference on the effect of marriage on health between men and women is just because men's life expectancy is shorter?

That is, she's still alive when his health starts to fail, but by the time hers starts to go he's already in the ground?; 7/19/11, 5:33 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: My best friend from the age of fourteen just died at the young age of fifty-seven. He had had a heart attack on July 4th, spent a couple of days in the hospital after which they sent him home to await a stent. He died in his sleep. The autopsy isn't in yet, but I'm guessing pulmonary embolism. I gather he was experiencing PAD recently. He lived alone, and I can't help but think that if he had had a significant other in the bed beside him, he'd still be alive.; 7/19/11, 6:36 PM
Rick Lee said...: Wow... this one really hit me. I had a minor heart attack a couple of years ago. I might not have gone to the hospital at all if not for my wife's strong urging. She complains of chest pain all the time and I always tell her to take an antacid (which, up until this point has always solved the problem).; 7/19/11, 7:46 PM
Skippy said...: Husbands who do what their wives tell them do are generally happier men. This is just more proof.; 7/19/11, 8:37 PM