\Single people could die up to seventeen years earlier than their married peers, a new study published in the Journal of Epidemiology said. According to MSNBC, single men fare worse than single women, but life spans for both sexes are consistently shorter if they don’t have a spouse.
This new study shows “just how poorly the singles do” in terms of health and longevity compared to the married, lead author David Roelfs said.
The study is a meta-analysis of about 90 previous studies done on the subject, which included about 500 million people total. Single people did not include those who are divorced or widowed, researchers said.
After comparing mortality risk for singles, the team found that the risk of death was 32 percent higher across a lifetime for single men and 23 percent higher for single women. That means that in the “worse-case scenario,” single men could die about eight to 17 years earlier than their married counterparts, and women could die seven to 15 years earlier.
Researchers believe this phenomenon is linked to poorer health benefits, meager assistance and less income for single people. And despite the fact that single people still have parents, family and friends, they have less social support “by default,” Roelfs said.
