The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Marital status, health and mortality

Marital status, health and mortality
Marital status, health and mortality
Marital status and living arrangements, along with changes in these in mid-life and older ages, have implications for an individual’s health and mortality. Literature on health and mortality by marital status has consistently identified that unmarried individuals generally report poorer health and have a higher mortality risk than their marriedc ounterparts, with men being particularly affected in this respect. With evidence of increasing changes in partnership and living arrangements in older ages, with rising divorce amongst younger cohorts offsetting the lower risk of widowhood, it is important to consider the implications of such changes for health in later life. Within research which has examined changes in marital status and living arrangements in later life a key distinction has been between work using cross-sectional data and that which has used longitudinal data. In this context, two key debates have been the focus of research; firstly, research pointing to a possible selection of less healthy individuals into singlehood, separation or divorce, while the second debate relates to the extent to which an individual’s transitions earlier in the life course in terms of marital status and living arrangements have a differential impact on their health and mortality compared with transitions over shorter time periods. After reviewing the relevant literature, this paper argues that in order to fully account for changes in living arrangements as a determinant of health and mortality transitions, future research will increasingly need to consider a longer perspective and take into account transitions in living arrangements throughout an individual’s life course rather than simply focussing at one stage of the life course.
0378-5122
295-299
Robards, James
4c79fa72-e722-4a2a-a289-1d2bad2c2343
Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Falkingham, Jane
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Vlachantoni, Athina
06a52fbb-f2a0-4c81-9fbc-d6efc736c6cb
Robards, James
4c79fa72-e722-4a2a-a289-1d2bad2c2343
Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Falkingham, Jane
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Vlachantoni, Athina
06a52fbb-f2a0-4c81-9fbc-d6efc736c6cb

Robards, James, Evandrou, Maria, Falkingham, Jane and Vlachantoni, Athina (2012) Marital status, health and mortality. Maturitas, 73 (4), 295-299. (doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2012.08.007).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Marital status and living arrangements, along with changes in these in mid-life and older ages, have implications for an individual’s health and mortality. Literature on health and mortality by marital status has consistently identified that unmarried individuals generally report poorer health and have a higher mortality risk than their marriedc ounterparts, with men being particularly affected in this respect. With evidence of increasing changes in partnership and living arrangements in older ages, with rising divorce amongst younger cohorts offsetting the lower risk of widowhood, it is important to consider the implications of such changes for health in later life. Within research which has examined changes in marital status and living arrangements in later life a key distinction has been between work using cross-sectional data and that which has used longitudinal data. In this context, two key debates have been the focus of research; firstly, research pointing to a possible selection of less healthy individuals into singlehood, separation or divorce, while the second debate relates to the extent to which an individual’s transitions earlier in the life course in terms of marital status and living arrangements have a differential impact on their health and mortality compared with transitions over shorter time periods. After reviewing the relevant literature, this paper argues that in order to fully account for changes in living arrangements as a determinant of health and mortality transitions, future research will increasingly need to consider a longer perspective and take into account transitions in living arrangements throughout an individual’s life course rather than simply focussing at one stage of the life course.

Text
PUBLISHED_(DECEMBER_2012).pdf - Version of Record
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy

More information

Submitted date: 6 August 2012
e-pub ahead of print date: 3 September 2012
Published date: 13 November 2012
Organisations: Social Statistics & Demography, Social Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 343185
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/343185
ISSN: 0378-5122
PURE UUID: 65b99b2d-a3cd-4ecf-ba15-5ace14bdbd46
ORCID for James Robards: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4784-5679
ORCID for Maria Evandrou: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2115-9358
ORCID for Jane Falkingham: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7135-5875
ORCID for Athina Vlachantoni: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1539-3057

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 01 Oct 2012 14:01
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:29

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: James Robards ORCID iD
Author: Maria Evandrou ORCID iD
Author: Jane Falkingham ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×