Men More Likely to Divorce Ill Spouse
ABC News May 12, 2001

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Boston - According to a new study, men are "approximately eight times more likely than women to leave a spouse with brain cancer, six times more likely to leave one with other cancer and seven times more likely to leave one with MS."

The study was done at Brown University and the University of Massachusetts. "The number of failed marriages among women with brain tumors is very alarming, and suggests their male partners were not as supportive as one would hope," according to Dr. Michael Glanz. "Women seem more willing or more adept at nurturing their husbands through and illness, while men are not as skilled at doing the same for their wives."

Further studies are going to be conducted to find personality characteristics or other factors tied to decisions to leave ill spouses so that they possibly can be addressed beforehand. "There are men who are really attentive and take really good care of their afflicted wives, so there must be other features that help us predict which men or which women are going to leave," Glantz said.

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