A growing body of research links divorce to health problems, including an increased risk of premature death. This new study in the medical journal Anals of Behavioral Medicine highlights two possible causes: a greater likelihood of smoking after a divorce and a decrease in physical activity.
Researchers from the University of Arizona in the United States analyzed the medical data of 5,786 participants aged 50 and over, of whom 926 had divorced or separated without remarrying.
They looked at participants’ personal satisfaction, frequency of physical activity, smoking, as well as measurements of lung function and levels of inflammation.
Divorce encourages smoking and a sedentary lifestyle
The researchers found that those who were divorced or separated had a 46% higher risk of dying during the study than their still-married counterparts.
They observed that divorced or separated participants, particularly women, reported lower life satisfaction than married participants and also lower levels of physical activity, which is linked to a greater risk of premature death.
They were also more likely to to smoke.
Although the study does not explicitly examine the link between divorce, a greater likelihood of smoking and sedentary lifestyle, a possible explanation would be that divorced people no longer hold their spouses accountable for their health behaviors.
“These divorced individuals no longer have spouses concerned about their health behaviors. If a husband or wife does not smoke and their partner is a smoker, one may try to influence the behavior of the other. In other ways, when a relationship ends, we lose that important social control of our health behaviors,” said Kyle Bourassa, study author and psychologist at the University of Arizona.
Read also :
Could divorce be linked to genetics?
What are the most divorced months?
