New research from the US suggests that divorce and widowhood damage health in ways that even getting married again doesn’t heal.

The study was the work of University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite, who is Lucy Flower Professor in Sociology and Director of the Center on Aging at the National Opinion Research Center at the University, and her colleague Mary Elizabeth Hughes, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their findings will appear in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Although researchers have explored links between health and marriage before, this is the first study to look at links between a wide range of health dimensions and marital transitions and marital status.

Other research shows that taking into account genetics and other factors, one can regard people as entering adulthood with a particular “stock” of health and each person’s experience of marital gain and loss affects this “stock”.

For instance, marriage tends to improve health behaviours in men and financial wellbeing in women, said Waite, explaining that these health advantages tend to grow throughout marriage, whereas transitions like divorce or widowhood tend to undermine health because of effects like drop in income and the stresses of sorting out things like child care.

For the study 8,652 people aged 51 to 61 filled in questionnaires, the responses to which Waite and Hughes analyzed and found that among those currently married, those who had ever been divorced had worse health on all the dimensions they investigated.

Specifically they found that:

  • Compared to participants who were married, those who were divorced or widowed had 20 per cent more chronic health problems like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

  • They also had 23 per cent more limitations to their mobility, such as difficulty climbing stairs or walking around the block.

  • Compared to married people, those who never married had 13 per cent more depressive symptoms and 12 per cent more mobility limitations.

  • However, there was no difference in the number of chronic conditions reported between those who never married and married people.

  • Compared to participants who remained married continuously, those who remarried had 12 per cent more chronic health conditions, 19 per cent more mobility limitations, but no depressive symptoms.

Reflecting on the reasons behind the results, Waite suggested that the impact of transitions like marriage, divorce and remarriage on health depends on the ways the illnesses develop and heal over time.

“Some health situations, like depression, seem to respond both quickly and strongly to changes in current conditions,” said Waite, while others, like diabetes and heart disease develop a lot more slowly over a longer period and show the effect of experiences, she added.

“Marital Biography and Health Midlife.”
Linda Waite and Mary Elizabeth Hughes.
To be published in September 2009.
— Journal of Health and Social Behavior

Source: University of Chicago.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD