Ruminations: The Deleterious Effects of Marital Stress

"Our study shows that the quality of marriage and family life has health implications for life expectancy. Men who reported they perceived their marriage as [a] failure died younger than those who experienced their marriages as very successful."
"In other words, the level of satisfaction with marriage has emerged as a predictive factor for life expectancy at a rate comparable with smoking [smokers versus non-smokers] and physical activity [activity versus inactivity]."
"Marital education programs for couples should be implemented as part of health promotion strategies for the general population."
"Revisiting this data, when we are more aware of links between psychological well-being and physical health, we found that their marriage satisfaction at the start of the study was actually a predictive factor for death in general and for death by strokes."
"This research strongly suggests that marital satisfaction and marital resilience is worth [an] investment by public health authorities, just as they invest in preventing smoking and promoting physical exercise."
Shahar Leve-Ari, head, Department of Health promotion School of Public Health, Tel Aviv University, Israel

"Studies show that people who live together but who do not have the kind of certainty of knowing that they are going to stay together, don't get the health benefits of staying in their relationship."
Marta Zarasla. science journalist, author

A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, concludes that difficult marriage relations are critically harmful to the male member's health and future mortality prospects. Conducted at Tel Aviv University, the study found unhappy husbands facing an increased risk of death from any cause. The study was based on thirty years of health data, tracking life and death of ten thousand Israeli state employees from the 1960s forward in time.

Close attention was given to deaths from cerebrovascular incidents, i.e., strokes, and all-cause mortality. When the longitudinal study was initiated, participants were in their 40s, asked at that early stage to rate their overall level of satisfaction within their marriage on a scale of 1 (very successful) to 4 (very unsuccessful}.

This initial measure surprised researchers who discovered it to have been predictive of life expectancy; as much so as smoking or a lack of physical activity. Men who died from a stroke turned out to be 69 percent higher in number among men who felt their marriage was very unsuccessful, in comparison to those men who felt entirely the opposite.

As far as deaths from any cause was concerned, happily married men enjoyed a 19 percent advantage over their opposites, at a rate of 248.5 deaths in comparison to 295.3 deaths among their unhappy counterparts. The gap between the two groups was seen to be greater at younger ages, closer to the start of the study.

The research conclusions represent compelling evidence that a wealth of benefits attach to committed relationships, contributing to longer, healthier lives.