Jean Liu and Kevin Huang, of San Jose, Calif.,poser after they were married at San Francisco City Hall, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008. They said they were married due to this lucky day, 8-8-08. The date is also revered in China where more than 16,000 Beijing couples tied the knot on China’s auspicious triple-eight date, adding a dash of love to a day of national pride at the start of the Olympics. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

- MONDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) — People who've exchanged wedding
vows tend to be healthier than their single, divorced or widowed peers,
but new research shows that health gap may be narrowing.

Interviews with today's never-married men suggest they are healthier
than never-married guys were three decades ago, researchers say. And
that's helping single males gain some ground, in terms of their health,
compared to married people.

“One of the most-often documented facts is that married people are
healthier than non-married people, but the difference between married and
unmarried people has changed over the past few decades,” said the study's
lead author, Hui Liu, an assistant professor and sociologist at Michigan
State University in East Lansing.

The findings are in the September issue of the Journal of Health and
Social Behavior.

Liu said there are two theories as to why married people report better
health. One is that being married gives you more access to social support
and economic resources. The other is that being divorced or widowed hurts
health.

“In general, marriage tends to make people healthier, happier and
richer, and that's especially true for men,” said Scott Wetzler, vice
chairman of psychiatry and behavioral science, and head of the “Supporting
Healthy Marriage” program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

But because trends in marriage have changed so dramatically over the
past few decades, with more people opting not to marry or marrying at
later ages, Liu wanted to assess what, if any, effects these changes might
have on physical health.

To analyze these trends, Liu and her colleague, Debra Umberson,
reviewed 32 years of data on more than one million Americans from the
National Health Interview Survey. Study participants were between the
ages of 25 and 80. Health status was self-reported in the survey.

The researchers found that the self-reported health status of
never-married adults increased significantly over time. At the same time,
the self-reported health status of married women also increased, so the
gap between married and never-married women's health stayed about the
same. However, never-married men narrowed the health gap between
themselves and married men.

“An important potential reason is that never-married men have greater
access to social support now than they did in the past. It used to be
that having a spouse was important for social support and a social
network,” explained Liu.

The researchers also found that self-reported health improved for
nearly all American blacks, except for those who had been widowed.

People who had been married in the past, including those widowed or
divorced, reported declines in their overall health status, according to
the study.

“If you get married and then divorced, that will hurt your health,”
said Liu.

“This study provides confirmation that marriage does tend to make
people healthier. They didn't look at the quality of an individual
marriage, but that being married is more likely overall to make you
happier than not being married,” said Wetzler.

More information

To read more about the health effects of marriage, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.