People who've exchanged wedding vows tend to be healthier
than their single, divorced or widowed peers, but new research
shows that health gap may be narrowing.
Interviews with today's never-married men suggest they are
healthier than never-married guys were three decades ago,
researchers say. And that's helping single males gain some
ground, in terms of their health, compared to married people.
"One of the most-often documented facts is that married people
are healthier than non-married people, but the difference
between married and unmarried people has changed over the
past few decades," said the study's lead author, Hui Liu,
an assistant professor and sociologist at Michigan State University
in East Lansing.
The findings are in the September issue of the Journal
of Health and Social Behavior.
Liu said there are two theories as to why married people
report better health. One is that being married gives you
more access to social support and economic resources. The
other is that being divorced or widowed hurts health.
"In general, marriage tends to make people healthier, happier
and richer, and that's especially true for men," said Scott
Wetzler, vice chairman of psychiatry and behavioral science,
and head of the "Supporting Healthy Marriage" program at Montefiore
Medical Center in New York City.
But because trends in marriage have changed so dramatically
over the past few decades, with more people opting not to
marry or marrying at later ages, Liu wanted to assess what,
if any, effects these changes might have on physical health.
To analyze these trends, Liu and her colleague, Debra Umberson,
reviewed 32 years of data on more than one million Americans
from the National Health Interview Survey. Study participants
were between the ages of 25 and 80. Health status was self-reported
in the survey.
The researchers found that the self-reported health status
of never-married adults increased significantly over time.
At the same time, the self-reported health status of married
women also increased, so the gap between married and never-married
women's health stayed about the same. However, never-married
men narrowed the health gap between themselves and married
men.
"An important potential reason is that never-married men
have greater access to social support now than they did in
the past. It used to be that having a spouse was important
for social support and a social network," explained Liu.
The researchers also found that self-reported health improved
for nearly all American blacks, except for those who had been
widowed.
People who had been married in the past, including those
widowed or divorced, reported declines in their overall health
status, according to the study.
"If you get married and then divorced, that will hurt your
health," said Liu.
"This study provides confirmation that marriage does tend
to make people healthier. They didn't look at the quality
of an individual marriage, but that being married is more
likely overall to make you happier than not being married,"
said Wetzler.
