For Married Women, Age Gap Can Be Deadly

(CBS)  While studies have show marriage to extend life expectancy in both men and women, women who marry much younger men had better watch out - they're much more likely to die younger.

A new study shows that women who marry men seven to nine years younger than they are increase their mortality risk by 20 percent.

This is the opposite of the finding for men who marry much younger wives - their life expectancy increases.

The new study from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, changes assumptions about how marriage can extend life, owing in part to improved support systems spouses can provide for one another, and the supposed psychological benefit from having a younger spouse, who could become a caretaker should the older spouse become infirm.

Previous studies have shown that men with younger wives live longer, and it was assumed that the opposite - women with younger husbands - would also be true.

Sven Drefahl's new study shows that the mortality risk of a husband who is seven to nine years older than his wife is reduced by 11 percent, compared to couples who are the same age, and if the man is younger than his spouse he dies earlier.

But Drefahl also found that for women, the greater the age difference with her husband, the lower her life expectancy, regardless of whether she is younger or older than her spouse.

Using data from almost two million Danish couples, Drefahl showed that for women the best choice is to marry a man of exactly the same age.

An older husband will shorten her life . . . and a younger one even more so.

Drefahl said that it was doubtful that women benefit either socially or psychologically from having a much younger husband.

"On average, men have fewer and lesser quality social contacts than those of women," said Drefahl, indicating that a woman's larger social network is enough.

But why the reduced life expectancy?

Drefahl suggests that women who marry much differently-aged spouses experience increased stresses and less social support, coming from the perception of having violated social norms.

Still, being married in general does raise life expectancy of both men and women above those who are unmarried. And generally, women's life expectancy worldwide is generally greater than men's by a few years.

Drefahl, of Stockholm University's Demography Unit, is a Ph.D. candidate at Rostock University.

His study is published in the May 12 issue of the journal Demography.

Age Gap to Spouse
A woman's life expectancy is shorter the greater the age difference from her husband, irrespective of whether she is younger or older than him. Women marrying a partner seven to nine years younger increase their mortality risk by 20 percent, compared to couples where both partners are the same age. However, the younger his wife, the longer a man lives - a man who is seven to nine years older than his wife has his mortality risk reduced by eleven percent.

(CBS)

For more info:
Press Release: Marriage and Life Expectancy (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research)
Journal: "Demography"

[mokey22]

The problem becomes that an older person ages at a faster rate than a youger person. A younger person may look the same and appear young for 20 years where that older person may look quite older after 5 years. Say you married someone who looks good at 45 but by 50 they may look too old to keep you attracted to their looks.

[Crush1800]

Guess what, WE ALL DIE SOMETIME...LOVE THE ONE you're with, and be happy. I am 5 years younger than my wife, and we have a great relationship, yet, I do catch her scoping out other dudes, she is mine, as I scope out other ladie4s, and she laughs at me when I get the WASN'T ME look...You know the one.. So, the article has some numbers. BIG WHOOP..we clean, cook, live, flower, and sex together....PEACE

[ddsmne]

I am horrified that articles like this are
splattered all over the internet.

K is the most important person in my life.
I'm 43 and she's 57. I've been with her
for over sixteen years. If I lose her I lose
everything.

I pray that she will fall outside of the
unfortunate 20 percent, if the study is,
in fact, true.(Statistics change based upon
future research, especially ones like this,
where locations can, and often do, affect
demographic results.)

I also hope that, with respect to older woman/
younger man relationships, relational dynamics
between couples play a more important role in
women's health than sociological ones.

I say that because I believe we're doing very
well together, and we don't give a damn what
people think. Actually, no one that
we know has ever given us a hard time about
our age difference, nor have we gotten "bad
vibes" about it. In fact, the whole idea about
older woman/younger man discrimination seems
old fashioned and out dated to me.

How will this kind of research benefit people anyway?
Is it going to improve the quality of the lives of
middle-aged, single women more than it will
upset those men and women who are already
with younger (or older) spouses?

What if aforementioned women are simply turned
on by younger men? What if that's what makes them
happy? Will reading this information dissuade them
from following their nature? Wouldn't that go
against who they are and what they like, thereby
increasing their stress level and decreasing
their happiness and life expectancy?

Suppose the women representing the
20 or so percent who died too soon had somehow found out
that being with younger men can kill you, and quickly
dumped their bewildered younger men before it did them
in, and then went ahead and married men their own age?
How many of them would have been happy and thus have
extended their lives? Is it not possible that they would
have been at least as unhappy as they were with their
younger spouses, if not unhappier? It's something to
think about the next time you read an article as
non-specific as this.

[erasmus111]

I believe there is a big difference between being five years older and 14 years older. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Maybe the years you have together, if they are good, would be worth it. But something you have to think about is the fact that when a woman hits 65 and her husband is 51, and she doesn't look as hot as she used to, what then? What about the humiliation she will feel if her husband then leaves her for a younger woman. Don't tell me she isn't going to be worrying about it happening. It WILL cause her stress, eventually. Some will feel the need to be constantly having plastic surgery to keep their men happy. THAT IS STRESS!

[mokey22]

What about when she's 73 and you're 53 and you know you can get a women 40 or even younger...will you still be comitted? I'm just asking.

[amerilatino]

Not goats, gnime1968, cute young heifers...

[tjh14]

"This is the opposite of the finding for men who marry much younger wives - their life expectancy increases. "

Ha! I never did need any justification, but now I have it! Why have a bologna sandwich when you can have a steak?

[independentmoderate]

For the Planck Institute: Perhaps men will view this as the mastery of manipulating a decreasing pool of everready younger women to marry older men! Personally, in their twenties, a girl could benefit from a guy about 7-19 years older than they are. However, that probably means that, despite the % of longevtivity, they will still probably be a widow for a longer time. That may be ok with them, or they then may have to look for other widowers to keep them company.... That is not a large group! Any way you do it, it's a crap shoot!

[independentmoderate]

PS: Marry a younger guy? No, no no! Baby sitting a lover is not amusing! Girls, ask them to go home and bring back Daddy...IF he's single!

[longtree-2009]

just another useless study by a ph.d. candidate, no doubt for his dissertation. marry who or what you want, we have to die no matter your choice sooner or later. no one is forever, no living creature for certain.

[Wisdomspeak]

This article is nothing but propaganda developed by American white men. I say that because one does not see such artful cunning documentaries devise in other countries to promote falsehood. For examples, in the Muslim countries they just tell their women that they must cover up their bodies while in public. They don?t go about creating a propaganda stating that women will suffer severe health problems if they don?t cover up. They just say cover up!

But here in America, I have observed that whatever the white man finds annoying to him, he won?t be open and honest about his annoyances, he just goes about creating propaganda against them. (White men think they are so d#@$ smart!) Here?s a list of current propagandas that are especially directed again women, and the reason why they promote them?

1. ?The age differences in marriages may send the wife to an early grave.? The Real Truth ? older men want these older physically attractive women to quit overlooking them as mates even though they refuse to keep their own bodies in good physical fitness. (Please notice how younger women are not the ones complaining about older women being with younger men.)

2. The name ?Cougar? propaganda was developed for the same reason as stated in #1, but it has not achieved the desire effect.

3. ?Conveying the message to white women that their breasts are inadequate in their natural state.? The Real Truth ? White men feel very inadequate when it comes to the size and performance of their own *****. Misery loves company, so they go about conveying to the white woman that they must, in a sexual way, be inadequate too - just like them.

4. ?Mocking favorite cuisines of Black Americans ? fried chicken, collard greens and etc?? The Real Truth ? It is very noticeable that black men in professional sports have very athletic bodies; something that Whites assume is partly due to diet as well as genetics. So they want to encourage the white race to consume more of these foods, while at the same time, trying to discourage Blacks from them.

5. ?Black men beat their women.? The white man wants to discourage their white women from being with black men, as well as, tying to encourage more black women to choose white men as mates, but they have not been able to think up an effective propaganda as far as the latter is concern.

[FauxNews]

Yes, no doubt good advice. I've developed a lot of serious and meaningful relationships with white women by mocking collard greens. I'm surprised this scientific study didn't mention it.

[Wisdomspeak]

Ok - Mr. FauxNews, I know that you are trying to be cute, but it is a well known fact that if white men are not mocking Blacks in some kind of fashion, they are racking their brains for ways to control women! A very masculine trait that seems to permeate all societies and cultures, except white American men seek to do it through these outlandish propagandas of their own imaginations!

[Gestaltwoman]

I think age is irrelevant.This was one study! I have loved older men,and younger in my life...I loved the person,It is sad to see from the comments we still as society judge women by their looks.

[frenchwyne]

Im 50 and my husband is 36. We have boys 6 and 7. The youngest is autistic and my husband is so patient and good with our sons as well as my 17 year old daughter. I will probably die first Im glad my husband is younger to take care of our son, so shut up and be happy age doesnt matter...my son cant talk or take care of himself probably ever.