After a heart attack, even a brief delay in getting medical attention may mean the difference between life and death. A new study suggests that being married is a significant factor in getting treatment faster — but only for men.

Researchers in Canada checked how long it took for 4,401 heart attack victims, 1,486 of them women, to arrive at treatment after the onset of chest pain. In a study published online on Monday in The Canadian Medical Association Journal, the scientists defined late arrival as a delay of six hours or more from the onset of pain to the beginning of treatment.

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.

“Wives are more likely to take the caregiver role and advise their husbands to go to the E.R.,” said Dr. Clare L. Atzema, the lead author and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Toronto. “But as my husband put it, even if I wasn’t there telling him to go to the hospital, he’d hear my voice telling him to do so. Even when they’re not there, women have a pronounced effect.”