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May 8, 2007: While being single
certainly has its bliss, adults who never marry
may not live as long as their wedded peers.
A new research suggests that, while the protective
effect of marriage on health and longevity has
been researched and pointed out before, latest
research is targeting the never-married people.
Staying single all one’s life might not be good
for one’s health or lifespan, according to
researchers at the University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA).
The research team examined the 1997 United States
National Death Index and the 1989 National Health
Interview Survey. In 1989, almost half of the
survey sample was married – about 10% widowed, 12%
divorced, 3% separated, 5% living with someone,
and 20% had never married.
Compared with married people, those who had never
been married were 58% more likely to have died at
the end of the study’s eight-year follow-up
period.
By comparison, those who widowed were nearly 40%
more likely to die during the follow-up than were
married participants, while those who had been
divorced or separated were 27% more likely to die.
However, the UCLA researchers, who published their
study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, said the findings cannot prove cause and
effect.
In fact, many of the researchers in the team
differed on key factors. For example, Patrick
Markey, an assistant professor of psychology at
Villanova (Pa.) University wondered: Does single
status lead to lack of health, or are they single
because they are unhealthy?
In a study conducted in 2005, Patrick Markey and
his wife Charlotte Markey, a researcher at Rutgers
University in New Jersey, found that being married
was associated with men practising good health
habits, such as seeing the doctor regularly.
Married women and single women both tend to be
‘health-proactive,’ the researchers found. Patrick
Markey thinks that “the married women may be
reminding the men” about good health practices.
Unmarried women stay healthy because of better
social networks, according to Patrick Markey.
Unmarried women typically have more people to turn
to for help than do single men.
Howard S Friedman, a professor of psychology at
the University of California, Riverside, another
researcher, is of the opinion that singles
shouldn’t necessarily expect the absence of
marriage to shorten their lives.
The team did not find that singles are at greater
risk for premature mortality, Howard S Friedman
said, citing his long-running research on
predictors of health and longevity.
He added that the research team found, confirming
most other research, that married men live longer
– that is, are at less risk of premature mortality
– than divorced men. But this was not primarily
due to any protective effects of the marriage
itself; rather, it seems that some men having poor
marriages are at greater risk, and poor marriages,
break-ups and divorces are stressful.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT
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