There are real health benefits to getting married—even later in life
As The Golden Bachelorette proves, dating during one's golden years is hard. But a late-in-life relationship could bring many mental and physical health benefits.
The recent premiere of The Golden Bachelorette showcased 24 eligible men throwing their hats in the ring for a chance to marry 61-year-old Joan Vassos.
This and other reality television shows are good at highlighting the drama, anticipation, and excitement that most of us experience during the earliest stages of a relationship. But such programs usually don’t explore what happens after a couple says "I do."
For those who take that step, marriage can bring about a host of mental and physical health benefits—even helping you live longer.
(Here's what happens to your body when you're in love.)
"Marriage offers psychological and physical health benefits often because of what partners do for each other throughout their marriage," says Rosie Shrout, a marriage and health researcher and a social-health psychologist in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University. "They help each other become and stay healthier by exercising more often, smoking and drinking less often, and eating better."
These and many other factors help married people reduce risks associated with depression, psychological distress, hypertension, inflammation, and mortality—and offer advantages such as improved medical treatment outcomes and higher levels of happiness.
But do men and women reap these benefits in all marriages, or only the good ones? Are there still benefits from other long-term relationships outside of marriage? And do people who get married later in life also experience the same advantages?
Here's what to know about how your relationship affects your health—and whether it matters if a couple gets hitched in their twenties, their forties, or in the golden years beyond.
The mental health benefits from saying 'I do'
The literature is robust on the mental health benefits of being married. Surveys show that married folk report better self-esteem, greater life purpose, a heightened sense of belonging, and are significantly likelier to be happier than their single counterparts.
One reason for this is that physical touch, companionship, and frequent expressions of love release feel-good hormones like dopamine and oxytocin—"which play a crucial role in bonding and fostering a sense of closeness and well-being," says Brooke Sprowl, a licensed therapist and California-based clinical director who studies the relationship between health and marriage.
Such couples also experience less loneliness—"a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality," says David Kao, a marriage and health researcher and a cardiologist at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
(Why asking for help can make you feel less lonely.)
Happily married folk have also been shown to experience less stress than single people—though married men benefit more in this way than married women, in part because women are more likely to respond negatively to relationship stressors than are men, says Linda Waite, a distinguished professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.
And married people consistently have fewer rates of depression and better outcomes when depression occurs, says Brian Willoughby, a marital researcher and professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University in Utah.
The physical health benefits of a happy marriage
The physical health benefits are no less compelling. Marriage has been associated with better outcomes for people with coronary heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and conditions affecting blood flow to the brain, says Katarina Leyba, a resident physician at the University of Colorado who studies the relationship between health and marriage.
Married people are also half as likely to experience cardiovascular disease and related outcomes such as heart attack and stroke. Other research shows that married individuals who do have heart disease are far less likely to die from it.
(Want to live longer? Influence your genes.)
And married couples have lower cancer risk as well. "One large study of over 1,000,000 patient records found that married men were 17 percent less likely to report a cancer diagnosis," says Willoughby. And when married people do get cancer, research shows they are more likely to survive.
Such factors are among the reasons that study after study show married individuals live longer than their single counterparts—research that holds up across different countries around the world.
Why do relationships offer these health benefits?
But is there something special about marriage—or can other forms of relationships confer similar benefits? Although much of the research on the health benefits of relationships focuses on marriage, recent research shows that couples who live together and share in the same responsibilities as married couples often benefit in similar ways—even though married couples report higher levels of relationship satisfaction than cohabiting couples.
Regardless of marital status, people in committed relationships have been shown to recover faster from illnesses, cancer treatments, and surgery because "the emotional and practical support from a partner can significantly speed up the healing process and ensure better adherence to medical advice and overall care," says Sprowl.
Strong unions can also help couples avoid needing such care altogether, Leyba adds, as they are less likely to pick up bad habits like excessive television watching or smoking; and because they are more likely to establish good habits like eating healthy, exercising, and taking part in preventative care such as cancer screenings.
Women don’t necessarily benefit in all the same ways, however, as single women are still likely to schedule their own preventative care and stay on top of preventative medication such as blood pressure meds—protective steps single men are less likely to take. Married men also experience other better physical health outcomes than married women, such as improved heart failure prognosis.
(Is there such a thing as too much preventive medicine?)
But married women still have some unique advantages of their own. For example, "unmarried women are at a significantly higher risk of death from pregnancy-related conditions, including abortions, ectopic pregnancies and peripartum hemorrhage," explains Leyba. This is because single mothers often have less familial support and assistance in obtaining adequate healthcare and are likelier to have more stress associated with managing childcare alone.
Another benefit of marriage is that pooled income can contribute to more financial security, "and there is a direct connection between having financial assets and access to health care," says Donald Cole, a licensed marriage and family counselor and the clinical director of the Gottman Institute in Seattle.
Additionally, married people "are more likely to have an active sex life than not-partnered people—and an active sex life means more exercise, less stress, and a higher likelihood of preventing cardiovascular disease," says Waite, who has published related research.
Why the quality of your marriage matters
Of course, such benefits aren't guaranteed, and the quality of one's marriage makes a significant difference in whether advantages are experienced or not.
"For any committed relationship to have health benefits, there needs to be love, respect, trust, honesty and loyalty," says Theresa Larkin, an associate professor in medical sciences for the Graduate School of Medicine at University of Wollongong in Australia. "Relationships that are stressful, hurtful, or difficult of course do not have health benefits."
Indeed, people in bad marriages are more likely to experience high blood pressure over their single peers and are three times more likely to develop heart disease.
"Compared to those managing conflict in positive ways like working together and validating each other’s perspectives, those who deal with conflict by rolling their eyes, speaking in a hostile tone, or criticizing their partners are more likely to have higher inflammation, higher stress hormones, and delayed wound healing," says Shrout.
"Our brain is wired for social connection, and it’s the quality of those connections that profoundly influences our mental and physical health," echoes Stephanie Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Oregon, who researches the effects of relationships on health. "Without a deep emotional connection, the protective benefits of marriage might not fully materialize."
Benefits that last into the golden years
The good news is that when one is in a loving, committed marriage, research shows that the health benefits of mid-to-later-life marriages can be as profound as the marriages of people who wed much earlier. "The benefits of being married remain constant for those over age 60 and beyond," says Kao.
In some ways, later-life marriages may even be more beneficial to single people as that's when preventative screenings are more important, hospital care is more likely, and musculoskeletal strength begins to decline. Older couples can help each other through such times and keep each other stronger and more active, explains Peter Martin, a human development and family studies professor at Iowa State University.
People in their sixties are also twice as likely to experience social isolation than younger adults, making the presence of a constant companion—spouse or otherwise—even more vital in staving off the dangers of loneliness.
Studies show the depth of a marriage can also be more profound during a couple's golden years. "Individuals marrying later often possess a clearer understanding of their own values, needs, and desires thanks to years of personal growth and experience," says Sprowl. "This self-awareness allows them to enter into relationships with a solid foundation of self-knowledge, enabling clearer communication and more meaningful connections."
