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The present study investigates the demographics of same-sex marriages--that is, registered partnerships-in Norway and Sweden. We give an overview of the demographic characteristics of the spouses of these partnerships, study patterns of their divorce risks, and compare the dynamics of same-sex couples with those of heterosexual marriages. We use longitudinal information from the population registers of the two countries that cover all persons in partnerships. Our demographic analyses include information on characteristics such as age, sex, geographic background, experience of previous opposite-sex marriage, parenthood, and educational attainment of the partners involved. The results show that in many respects, the distributions of married populations on these characteristics differ by the sex composition of the couples. Patterns in divorce risks are rather similar in same-sex and opposite-sex marriages, but divorce-risk levels are considerably higher in same-sex marriages. The divorce riskforfemale partnerships is double that for male partnerships.

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The Scandinavian countries are often cited as examples of countries where cohabitation is largely indistinguishable from marriage. Using survey data from Norway and Sweden (N = 2,923) we analyzed differences between cohabitors and married individuals in relationship seriousness, relationship satisfaction, and dissolution plans. Our analyses reveal that cohabitors overall are less serious and less satisfied with their relationships and are more likely to consider ending their current relationships than are married respondents. The views of cohabitors who report that they intend to marry their current partners within 2 years, however, differ much less from those of married respondents than cohabitors with no marriage plans. This finding suggests that even in Scandinavia cohabitors are a heterogeneous group.

Using Norwegian survey data (n = 4116), we study couples" likelihood of pooling their economic resources. The proportion of cohabitation compared to marriages is high in Norway. Over the last decades, tax policy and the social security system have moved towards equating cohabitation with marriage. Our knowledge of the economic organization of the two types of couples is, however, rather imperfect. Our main hypothesis is that cohabitants are less likely to pool their economic resources than married couples, but that this difference is less if they hold plans to marry. We take into account important factors that largely have been ignored in many earlier studies, namely the presence of children and the duration of the relationship. The results confirm our hypothesis but also show that the difference between cohabitants and married couples is reduced once these important factors are controlled for.Implications for policy are discussed.(145 words)

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In the first part of the gender revolution, women have entered the public spheres of education, employment and politics. The next step is the process by which men enter the private sphere and share the responsibility for the care of home and children equally with their female partners. Using comparable survey data, we investigate to what extent this process is underway in Norway and Sweden, analysing both ideal and actual sharing. Young Swedish couples are clearly more in favour of egalitarian sharing of housework than their Norwegian counterparts, and also seem to apply this ideal in reality to a greater extent. This is probably due to Sweden's longer history of gender equality norms, which are more 'institutionalized' in public policies (thus demonstrating path dependency). However, more or less the same explanatory factors were established to be important as those found by researchers of other, less gender-equal, societies.

Aims Patients with pulmonary hypertension (PHT) are often excluded from surgical therapies for tricuspid regurgitation (TR). Transcatheter tricuspid valve repair (TTVR) with the MitraClip™ technique is a novel treatment option for these patients. We aimed to assess the role of PHT in severe TR and its implications for TTVR. Methods and results A total of 243 patients underwent TTVR at two centres. One hundred twenty-one patients were grouped as iPHT+ [invasive systolic pulmonary artery pressures (PAPs) ≥50 mmHg]. Patients were similarly stratified according to echocardiographic PAPs (ePHT). The occurrence of the combined clinical endpoint (death, heart failure hospitalization, and reintervention) was investigated during a follow-up of 330 (interquartile range 175–402) days. iPHT+ patients were at higher preoperative risk (P < 0.01), had more severe symptoms (P = 0.01), higher N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels (P < 0.01), more impaired right ventricular (RV) function (P < 0.01), and afterload corrected RV function (P < 0.01). Procedural TTVR success was similar in iPHT+ and iPHT− patients (84 vs. 84%, P = 0.99). The echocardiographic diagnostic accuracy to detect iPHT was only 55%. During follow-up, 35% of patients reached the combined clinical endpoint. The discordant diagnosis of iPHT+/ePHT− carried the highest risk for the combined clinical endpoint [HR 3.76 (CI 2.25–6.37), P < 0.01], while iPHT+/ePHT+ patients had a similar survival-free time from the combined endpoint compared to iPHT− patients (P = 0.48). In patients with isolated tricuspid procedure (n = 131) a discordant iPHT+/ePHT− diagnosis and an impaired afterload corrected RV function (P < 0.01 for both) were independent predictors for the occurrence of the combined endpoint. Conclusion The discordant echocardiographic and invasive diagnosis of PHT in severe TR predicts outcomes after TTVR.