Although previous studies have found that simple being in a marriage tends to increase longevity for men and reduce their health risks, there has been some debate about why. Some researchers have argued that it may be because healthier people are more likely to marry.
Testing for bias
To test for bias by selection, researchers studied whether the quality of a marriage played a role in men’s health. In other words, they wanted to find out if simply being married was enough to affect health risks, or if it was specific to the average health of people who chose to get married.
The new study on marriage, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, used data from nearly two decades. It looked at the correlation between cardiovascular risk in married men and the quality of their marriage.
Why cardiovascular risk?
The researcher chose to look at men’s cardiovascular risk because it’s both common and well understood. They studied men in middle age because they tend to have a greater cardiovascular risk.
The researchers looked at the quality of the men’s relationships, as well as health metrics, such as BMI, blood fat profile, fasting glucose levels, resting heart rate and blood pressure. Factors like age, height, education level and household income were controlled.
The effects of marriage’s ups and downs
While men who reported constantly good or bad relationships didn’t seem to have any significant changes to cardiovascular risk, those whose relationships were ranked as improving or worsening did see changes to their cardiovascular risk.
For men who reported that their marriage was improving, BMI went down and “bad” cholesterol decreased. They also saw small improvements in diastolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
For men who reported that their marriage was worsening, their diastolic blood pressure was significantly worse than the other men.
