Never-Married Penalty: Early Death?

Study: Lifelong Singlehood More Risky Than Divorce, Widowhood

(WebMD)  People who have never married are more likely to die — at all ages — than people who are married and live together, U.S. data show.

It's the "never-married penalty," suggest University of California researchers Robert M. Kaplan, Ph.D., and Richard G. Kronick, Ph.D., in the August issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Kaplan and Kronick extracted data from two sources: a 1989 national health interview survey, and the 1997 U.S. national death index. They had sufficient data to analyze information on more than 80,000 Americans.

Their main findings:

Never being married has a greater risk of "poor health outcome" than being divorced or widowed.

For men, the never-married penalty is stronger early in life.

The never-married penalty affects both men and women.

"The risks of being never married ... rival the risks of having increased blood pressure or high cholesterol," Kaplan and Kronick conclude.

The researchers found that never-married people, compared with their married peers, are:

5 times more likely to die of infectious disease

Twice as likely to die in accidents, homicides, or suicides

38 percent more likely to die of heart disease

Social Isolation to Blame?

What's going on? Kaplan and Kronick suggest that people who never marry are isolated from other people. People who are divorced or widowed, they say, are more likely than the never-married to have children or other family relationships that offer social support.

"Accumulated evidence suggests that social isolation increases the risk of premature death," they note. "Marriage is a rough proxy for social connectedness."

The data strongly argue against other explanations. For example, it wasn't true that people with poorer health tended to be unmarried. In fact, the never-married penalty was strongest among people who said they were in excellent health. Moreover, never-married people reported better health habits than married people.

There are some drawbacks to the study. The researchers excluded people who were unmarried but living together. And the survey questions did not ascertain a person's sexual preference. Given the study period — 1989 to 1997 — a disproportionate number of deaths due to AIDS may have affected young men in the never-married group.

SOURCES: Kaplan, R.M. and Kronick, R.G. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, August 2006; vol 60: pp 760-765.


By Daniel J. DeNoon. Reviewed by Louise Chang, M.D. © 2006, WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.

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Add a Comment

by ljrmiller August 10, 2006 5:48 PM EDT

I don't care if it's a health risk. Being married was a huge health risk for me. And to be honest, I'd rather die happy, early and single/divorced than live to a ripe old age and endure the living hell called marriage.

I hated being married. I hated everything about it. I hated the loss of freedom. I hated the drain on my finances (I'm female, but I was the primary breadwinner in that marriage). I hated my husband's lying, especially when just before I left him, I found out WHY he had been lying all along: the scumbag was a drug abuser and had been for many years, even before I met him.

If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd rather have died at 29 (before I married) than survived having married and divorced to my current age of 47. I'd rather have died at any age than be married. Mere lifespan isn't everything.

Reply to this comment

by ljrmiller August 10, 2006 5:48 PM EDT

I don't care if it's a health risk. Being married was a huge health risk for me. And to be honest, I'd rather die happy, early and single/divorced than live to a ripe old age and endure the living hell called marriage.

I hated being married. I hated everything about it. I hated the loss of freedom. I hated the drain on my finances (I'm female, but I was the primary breadwinner in that marriage). I hated my husband's lying, especially when just before I left him, I found out WHY he had been lying all along: the scumbag was a drug abuser and had been for many years, even before I met him.

If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd rather have died at 29 (before I married) than survived having married and divorced to my current age of 47. I'd rather have died at any age than be married. Mere lifespan isn't everything.

Reply to this comment

by ljrmiller August 10, 2006 5:48 PM EDT

I don't care if it's a health risk. Being married was a huge health risk for me. And to be honest, I'd rather die happy, early and single/divorced than live to a ripe old age and endure the living hell called marriage.

I hated being married. I hated everything about it. I hated the loss of freedom. I hated the drain on my finances (I'm female, but I was the primary breadwinner in that marriage). I hated my husband's lying, especially when just before I left him, I found out WHY he had been lying all along: the scumbag was a drug abuser and had been for many years, even before I met him.

If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd rather have died at 29 (before I married) than survived having married and divorced to my current age of 47. I'd rather have died at any age than be married. Mere lifespan isn't everything.

Reply to this comment

by bbp9857 August 10, 2006 5:35 PM EDT

Does anyone with access to the journal article know if they included divorced, childless people? I wouldn't be all that surprised if that category faced the same fate as never-married.

Reply to this comment

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[ljrmiller]

I don't care if it's a health risk. Being married was a huge health risk for me. And to be honest, I'd rather die happy, early and single/divorced than live to a ripe old age and endure the living hell called marriage.

I hated being married. I hated everything about it. I hated the loss of freedom. I hated the drain on my finances (I'm female, but I was the primary breadwinner in that marriage). I hated my husband's lying, especially when just before I left him, I found out WHY he had been lying all along: the scumbag was a drug abuser and had been for many years, even before I met him.

If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd rather have died at 29 (before I married) than survived having married and divorced to my current age of 47. I'd rather have died at any age than be married. Mere lifespan isn't everything.

[ljrmiller]

I don't care if it's a health risk. Being married was a huge health risk for me. And to be honest, I'd rather die happy, early and single/divorced than live to a ripe old age and endure the living hell called marriage.

I hated being married. I hated everything about it. I hated the loss of freedom. I hated the drain on my finances (I'm female, but I was the primary breadwinner in that marriage). I hated my husband's lying, especially when just before I left him, I found out WHY he had been lying all along: the scumbag was a drug abuser and had been for many years, even before I met him.

If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd rather have died at 29 (before I married) than survived having married and divorced to my current age of 47. I'd rather have died at any age than be married. Mere lifespan isn't everything.

[ljrmiller]

I don't care if it's a health risk. Being married was a huge health risk for me. And to be honest, I'd rather die happy, early and single/divorced than live to a ripe old age and endure the living hell called marriage.

I hated being married. I hated everything about it. I hated the loss of freedom. I hated the drain on my finances (I'm female, but I was the primary breadwinner in that marriage). I hated my husband's lying, especially when just before I left him, I found out WHY he had been lying all along: the scumbag was a drug abuser and had been for many years, even before I met him.

If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd rather have died at 29 (before I married) than survived having married and divorced to my current age of 47. I'd rather have died at any age than be married. Mere lifespan isn't everything.

[bbp9857]

Does anyone with access to the journal article know if they included divorced, childless people? I wouldn't be all that surprised if that category faced the same fate as never-married.