Marriage Is Losing the Health Advantage for Men

by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

While happily married couples tend to have lower blood pressure, fewer sleep complaints, and lower rates of heart disease than people who have never married, that health gap appears to be closing, especially for men, report Michigan State University researchers in the September Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Lead researcher Hui Liu, an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State, and Debra Umberson, of the University of Texas at Austin, analyzed data from the National Health Survey from 1972 to 2003. They found that health had improved for all unmarried black and white men and women studied and for never-married women, but the never-married men improved most.

Why? The researchers suggest that unmarried men have more access to social resources and support, and are becoming less hesitant to reach out for help.
According to Liu and Umberson, “Politicians and scholars continue to debate the value of marriage for Americans, with some going so far as to establish social programs and policies to encourage marriage among those social groups less inclined to marry, particularly the poor and minorities.” The researchers believe that in light of these new findings, using better health as an argument to promote marriage may be misguided. Liu and Umberson stress that the marriage-health relationship is an extremely complex issue, but there are plenty of other good reasons for getting married — or not.