Contrary to previous and popular beliefs, scientists have found that marriage may not have health benefits for everyone.
Researchers have often pointed out the benefits that marriage could have on the health of a person. It has long been believed that marriage increases the longevity of a person's life. However, contrary to this belief, scientists have found that health benefits of marriage may not be for everyone, and are also different for each person.
Two important discoveries were made in a study conducted on this subject by researchers from the Ohio State University. First, it was discovered that marriage doesn't provide much protection against mortality as health deteriorates though it was found to benefit the people who were already healthy. Secondly, the study found that married people often overestimate how healthy they are when compared to unmarried people.
"We believe marriage is still good for the health of some people, but it is not equally protective for everyone," said Hui Zheng, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of sociology at the Ohio State University. "For those who are already in poor health, marriage doesn't seem to provide any extra benefits."
The results were found to be the same for both genders as well as all kinds of unmarried people including divorced, separated, widowed and never married people.
Study material for the research included data on about 789,000 people who participated in the National Health Interview Survey from 1986 to 2004. During this survey, people were asked to rate their health on a scale of 1 to 5 - five being excellent and 1 being poor. Zheng and co-researcher Patricia Thomas of the University of Texas at Austin followed up this data to identify the nearly 24,100 people who died between 1986 and 2006.
Previous studies that were conducted on the same data stated that unmarried people including divorced, separated, widowed and never married people, who rated their health as excellent, were two times at a higher risk of dying in the next three years.
However, the new study found that as self-rated health declines, the mortality advantage for married people diminishes. "These results suggest that marriage may be important for the prevention of disease, but not as helpful once people become seriously ill," Zheng said. "That's why we see a protective effect of marriage when people are in excellent health, but not when they are in poor health."
Their findings were published in the March 2013 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
