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Getting cheated on could have ‘detrimental’ effects on your chronic health, study reveals
A study has found that getting cheated on can have disastrous effects on not only your mental state but your physical health too.
Infidelity can leave you feeling depressed, betrayed and angry, but the consequences actually stem far further than the psychological effects.
Infidelity has ‘detrimental’ effects on your chronic health
The study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships analyzed the impact of spousal infidelity on long-term health and found that it was linked to poorer chronic health.
Chronic conditions are those which are persistent and long-lasting, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains.
They are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States and are often caused by lifestyle factors such as smoking, poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and excessive alcohol use. However, chronic diseases are sometimes unavoidable and not impacted by behavior, such as arthritis and migraines.
The study used data from 2,579 adults in the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study who reported whether their partner had ever been unfaithful. Their chronic health was assessed by tracking their long-term health conditions.
Participants who had been cheated on were more likely to report long-term chronic conditions and the study concluded that “partner infidelity has lasting detrimental associations with chronic health that are not mitigated by positive relationships”.
It also found that the impact of infidelity on chronic health was larger among low-income individuals and ethnic minorities.
Support from friends and family makes no difference
The study explored whether having support from friends and family reduces the risk of chronic disease after getting cheated on by a partner too.
Despite having a significant role mentally in helping victims deal with the emotional stress of infidelity, researchers found no evidence that non-romantic relationships could protect against any long-term health consequences.
“The bad news is that having supportive relationships with ones family or friends did not seem to alleviate the negative associations between being cheated on with chronic health,” study researcher Vincent Y. S. Oh, lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, told PsyPost.
“We hoped to find that, perhaps, other sources of social support would at least reduce the chronic health associations of being cheated on. This was unfortunately not the case based on our findings.”
