MONDAY, Aug. 26, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- If you can't kick the habit, you might want to tie the knot.
Male smokers who desire a long life should get to the altar, says a study by economists at the University of Warwick in England.
The study found that marriage reduces the risk of death for men by a greater margin than the degree that smoking increases your risk of death. That wasn't the case for women, however.
The researchers examined mortality data from the British Household Panel survey. It includes more than 10,000 adults in more than 5,000 households studied annually from 1991 to 2000. The Warwick researchers also looked at information about 2,518 people in the British Retirement Survey.
When they factored out all other influences, they found that married men in the study were 6.1 percent less likely to die than unmarried men. Married women were 2.9 percent less likely to die than unmarried women.
That matrimonial bonus for men exceeds the finding that men in the study who smoked were 5.8 percent more likely to die than non-smokers. Women smokers were 5.1 percent more likely to die than other women in the study.
The researchers offer some suggestions for why marriage may benefit men. They say it may reduce stress and stress-related illnesses, encourage healthy behavior, and reduce unhealthy or risky activities. Having a spouse also makes it more likely a man will receive care when he is sick.
More Information
Here's a study from Rand on marriage and health.
