Doctors should take marital status into account when assessing the heart attack and stroke risk of patients, a major British study has found.

Researchers at Keele University analyzed dozens of studies involving more than two million people and discovered that compared to married people, those who were never married, divorced or widowed were 42 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease.

They were also 42 per cent more likely to die from from heart disease and 55 per cent more likely to die from a stroke. Usually the risk of cardiovascular disease is attributed to risk factors such as age, sex, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, and diabetes.

But the researchers say the new findings suggest that marital status should also be added to the list.

Senior author, Mamas Mamas, Professor of Cardiology at Keele University, in Staffordshire, said: “Our work suggests that marital status should be considered in patients with or at risk of developing cardiovascular disease, and should be used alongside more traditional cardiac risk factors to identify those patients that may be at higher risk for future cardiovascular events.”