Thursday, August 15, 2002
Get married for your health
A story released today by BBC New reports that a study conducted by researchers at the University of Warwick reveals that the health benefits of being married are so large that single men are at greater risk of dying than people who smoke cigarettes.
Scientists have frequently found that married men and women tend to be in better health than their single counterparts.
This is partly because of the "social support" of having a wife or husband - and perhaps because both single men and women have a worse lifestyle - and no-one to look out for their well being.
The latest study by the university looked at thousands of records from the British Household Panel Survey and the British Retirement Survey. It discovered that, even when the effects of smoking, drinking and other poor lifestyles were taken into account, married men had a much lower risk of death.
Over a seven year period, the married male had a 9% lower risk of dying compared with an unmarried one.
When smoking and drinking in this group was taken into account, the benefit was reduced to 6.1%.
Professor Andrew Oswald, who led the research, suggested that male smokers should get wed as soon as possible to counteract the risk.
He said: "Forget cash. It is as clear as day from the data that marriage, rather than money, is what keeps people alive.
"It makes perfect sense to ask how a ring of gold can possibly do this.
"But the honest answer is, that we don't know."
