Age Gap Concern

Monday 17th May 2010

A recent study conducted by German researchers found that women who marry men seven to nine years their junior or senior could be upping their odds of dying sooner.

Exchanging vows with a significantly younger man raises a woman's risk of death by 20%, according to the study published in Demography.

The study, based on data from almost two million Danish couples, indicates that marrying an older man may also shorten a woman's life, and that the healthiest choice for a husband might be a man around a woman's own age.

The study authors also stressed that, as a whole, marriage is not bad for life expectancy. In fact, both men and women experience a bump in longevity when they get married, relative to unmarried people.

The study found that men also got health benefits from choosing a younger wife. While men who married older women increased their risk for death, men who tied the knot with a woman seven to nine years younger cut their risk of death by 11%.

That notion suggests that older men and women who found younger partners were able to do so because they were healthier than average and therefore already faced a longer life expectancy. The theory relies on the idea that a younger spouse would boost the older partner's social and psychological frame of mind on the one hand, while being there to care for them in old age - all contributing to increased longevity for the older mate.

It seems to me that there are more factors in longevity than the age of your partner, but who knows, I am not the expert!

That's all for today, thanks for stopping by and see you again on Wednesday.