Differences by union status in health and mortality at older ages: Results for 16 European countries

Abstract

BACKGROUNDMarried people live longer than the unmarried; micro-level research indicates that they enjoy better health. Macro-level research does not combine mortality, marital status, and health. OBJECTIVEWe provide international comparisons of healthy and unhealthy life years at ages 50 and higher combining mortality, marital status, and health. METHODSWe examine differences in healthy and unhealthy life years for married and cohabiting (i.e., partnered) and for single men and women and break these down into mortality and disability. EU-SILC and Eurostat data for 2011 are used for 16 European countries. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSOur analyses show that partnered people, both men and women, are healthier than singles. However, these differences in unhealthy life are varied. For the length of healthy life, the effect of disability dominates the effect of mortality for women strongly and for men weakly, while the effect of mortality is more important for the length of unhealthy life of women. Populations in Eastern Europe are more disadvantaged than those in Western Europe with respect to length of life and of healthy life; these differences are larger for singles and lower for the partnered. CONTRIBUTIONWe extend previous macro-level studies on healthy and unhealthy life at older ages by introducing the additional dimension of partner status. We provide rich information in

Do Patients Live Longer After THA and Is the Relative Survival Diagnosis-specific?

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Risk of Major Depressive Episodes After Separation: The Gender-Specific Contribution of the Income and Support Lost Through Union Dissolution

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Widowed persons in Serbia: Change in number and general demographic characteristics (1980-2016)

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