MARRIED ADULTS LIVE WELL AND ARE MERRY: From the Washington Times

Married adults are more likely to be healthier--physically and mentally--than divorced, widowed, cohabiting or never-married adults, a new federal report says.

Regardless of age, sex, race, education, income or nationality, married adults were least likely to be in poor health, suffer serious psychological distress and smoke or drink heavily, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) says in its new report, which reviews health data gathered from more than 127,000 adults from 1999 to 2002. ...

"Wives are especially good at what social scientists call 'social support' and ordinary people call 'nagging,' " said columnist Maggie Gallagher, who heads the District-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy. ...

"When you're married, you have somebody to be accountable to ... and I see this even in marriages that are stormy--sometimes, they're stormy because of someone caring about a health issue," said Illinois therapist Michele Weiner-Davis, who is nationally known for her "divorce-busting" books and materials.

In addition, Mrs. Weiner-Davis said the "emotional connectedness" in marriage, plus its likelihood for sexual satisfaction, often leads to a sense of well-being in husbands and wives. So, saying that married people are the healthiest "seems to me to be an obvious truth," she said.

One caveat in the NCHS report is that federal interviewers asked for--but did not confirm--the participants' marital status and didn't confirm whether they were legally married, the report says. Researchers also don't look at whether the data included same-sex couples, Mrs. Schoenborn added.

However, the surveys clearly categorize adults who are "living with a partner," and the data shows that those who cohabit are not nearly as healthy as married adults.

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posted by Eve at 3:31 PM | link

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