Playing the role of caregiver to a wife who is diagnosed with cancer is proving too difficult for some husbands.
A study from Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Utah School of Medicine finds women are six times more likely than men to get divorced or separated when they are diagnosed with cancer.
Of the more than 500 patients in the study, 20-percent of the marriages ended in a split when the woman was sick, compared to three percent when it was the man who was diagnosed with cancer.
Researchers found couples that had been together longer were more likely to fight the disease together. However, the older a woman, the more likely she was to get divorced.
They also found spousal separations can lead to more antidepressant use and hospitalizations among cancer patients.
