Marriage good for you? Not if you’re a woman

MARRIAGE has long been said to be good for health. Now, however, a study has suggested that although married men are healthier than their single counterparts, women hardly benefit at all from tying the knot.

Research by University College London, the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that single women did not suffer the same negative health effects as unmarried men.

In fact, middle-aged women who had never married had virtually the same chance of developing metabolic syndrome — a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity — as their married counterparts.

Although single women showed slightly higher levels of a biomarker signifying a greater risk of breathing problems, it was far lower than levels in unmarried men. The same was true of a biomarker for heart problems, which was raised 14% in single men but barely noticeable in unmarried women.

“Not marrying or cohabiting is less detrimental among women than men,” said Dr George Ploubidis, a population health scientist at the UCL Institute of Education.

The research also showed that getting divorced did not have a harmful impact on future health for either men or women as long as they found a new long-term partner.

“Numerous studies have found that married people have better health than unmarried people. However, our research shows that people who experience separation, divorce and remarriage have very similar levels of health in middle age to those who are married.

“Previous research has also shown that men experience an initial decline after divorce, but we found that in the long term they tend to revert to their pre-divorce health status. Surprisingly, those men who divorced in their late 30s and did not subsequently remarry were less likely to suffer from conditions related to diabetes in early middle age compared with those who were married.”

The team analysed information on more than 10 000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in the same week of 1958.

The study is the first to investigate the links between partnership status and health in middle age in a large sample of the population.

The new study showed that although there was a small health impact for men who never married, it appeared that a long-term relationship was enough to keep people happy and healthy. — © The