Married or Unmarried: Which is Healthier?

Author: Allie Montgomery

In the past, studies have pointed out the benefits of being married, suggesting that married couples tend to be more healthy than their single, divorced, or widowed counterparts. The theory was originally backed up by the fact that being married can give you more access to social support and economic resources, and on the other hand, being single has been said to have negative consequences upon health.

A new research study shows that the gap that is between married and unmarried people has been changing over the past few decades. Researchers show that the health status of the adults that have never been married has increased significantly overtime. According to the study's lead author Hui Liu, which is a professor of sociology at Michigan State University, "Married people are still healthier than unmarried people, but the gap between the married and never-married is closing, especially for men." The new study which is titled "The Times They Are a Changin': Marital Status and Health Differentials from 1972 to 2003," will appear in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Hui Liu also explained that one of the reasons that for the general improvement of the single adults health is that people who are unmarried have greater access to social support today than they did in the past.

The researchers analyzed National Health Interview Survey data from a 30-year period from 1972-2002 and found that the status of health for the people that have never been married has improved for all races and gender groups that were examined: women, men, whites, and blacks. The health of the married women has also shown improvement, while the health of the men who are married remained stable.

The research also suggests that the encouragement of marriage in order to promote better health may be misguided. Studies previously done also showed that married individuals also have rates that are lower for depression and schizophrenia compared to those people that are not married. Also, people that are married have rates that are lower for alcoholism and suicide than the people who are unmarried. The married couples are far less likely to be lonely because they will always have someone around to share their thoughts and feelings with.

Liu said jokingly, "If you get married and then divorced, that will hurt your health."