The effect of marital status on glioma patient survival: analysis of 617 cases: A SEER-based study

To study the effect of marital status on survival outcome in people diagnosed with glioma, not otherwise specified using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. We chose patients diagnosed with glioma between 2000 and 2014 from the SEER database and recorded their disease-related data. We then analyzed overall 5-year cause-specific survival with respect to different marital statuses. There were 617 patients (262 women and 355 men). Of these, 54.0% (n = 333), 24.6% (n = 152), 8.6% (n = 53), and 12.8% (n = 79) were married, single, divorced (or separated), and widowed, respectively. The 5-year cause-specific survival was 39.30%, 64.50%, 60.40%, and 10.10% in the married, single, divorce (or separated), and widowed groups, respectively. The widowed group had substantially higher risk of glioma-related death than did the married group (hazard ratio 1.77, 95% confidence interval 1.337–2.344, P < .001). Being widowed provided higher risk of glioma mortality compared than did marital statuses. Widowed people should be given more support and psychological intervention by society.