My 2 Second Shelf Life

While women readily take on the role of caregiver to their ailing husbands, men struggle with new domestic responsibilities and the greater dependence their wives place on them, the study's authors suggest.

So-called "partner abandonment" can take a major toll on the health of the patient, says Marc Chamberlain, a neurologist at the University of Washington's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the lead investigator of the study.