Married people are healthier than single, divorced or widowed people. This is shown by a survey carried out in the United States over more than 30 years. Published in September in the Journal of health and social behavior, it also shows that for men, the fact of never having been married no longer affects their state of health as much as it did three decades ago.
The researchers analyzed 32 years of National health interview survey data on more than one million Americans. The participants were between the ages of 20 and 80. Scientists have found that over the past 30 years, the health of married and never-married men tended to be equally good. This is not true for married and never-married women, whose state of health reveals an ever-increasing gap.
The authors of the article, which will be published in September, explain these results by the importance of supports, social networks and economic resources that a marriage confers and which can maintain good health. Men can now access these benefits while remaining single, which would not be the case for women.
