A new study suggests that marriage has positive health effects on couples, especially for men. This health benefit remains even after divorce wherein they recover faster than their ex-wives.
Earlier studies suggest that married people are more likely to live longer and experience fewer emotional problems compared to those who haven't tied the knot. Researchers at the UCL Institute of Education, London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine conducted a study to validate this belief.
The team looked at the 2002 to 2004 health and relationship data of more than 10,000 people with ages 23 to 46. The researchers sent out nurses to participants with ages 44 to 46 for comprehensive health checks.
The analysis showed that married people had better cardiovascular and respiratory health in middle age compared to those who were single and never had a partner. However, those who married at late 20s and early 30s did not show significant health difference when compared to unmarried couples, suggesting that your health will remain unaffected as long as you have a partner.
"Numerous studies have found that married people have better health than unmarried people. However, our research shows that people born in the late 1950s who live together without marrying, or who experience separation, divorce and remarriage, have very similar levels of health in middle age to those who are married," the authors wrote in a university news release.
Further analysis showed that men tend to have more health benefits than women, even after divorce.
"Not marrying or cohabiting is less detrimental among woman than men," Dr, George Ploubidis, a population health scientist at the UCL Institute of Education, told The Telegraph.
"Being married appears to be more beneficial for men."
The analysis also found that eight percent of men and six percent of women who decide to tie the knot in their late 20s and early 30s eventually end up divorcing. On a positive note, about two-thirds of married couples stay together until their mid-forties. Only 12 percent had never married or lived with a partner.
The study was published in the June 12 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
