Men living in happy marriages ‘healthier’
Print Edition
Men whose marriages grow stronger over the years have healthier cholesterol and blood pressure than peers whose unions fall apart, said a study yesterday that hinted at unexpected health perks of relationship counseling.
Researchers got more than 600 men in Britain to rate the “quality” of their marriage at two points in time — when their child was 3, and then again aged 9.
The men could describe their union as consistently good, consistently bad, improving, or deteriorating.
Another 12 years later, the team measured the participants’ health.
They analyzed such measures as blood pressure, resting heart rate, weight, cholesterol, and blood sugar — potential risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Men who had described their marriages as “improving” had better cholesterol readings and a healthier weight years later, the team reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
But unions described as deteriorating “were associated with worsening diastolic blood pressure.”
“Changes in the quality of a marital relationship appear to predict CVD (cardiovascular disease) risk.”
Little change, however, was noted for men who had reported being in a consistently good or consistently bad marriage, said the team, and speculated this may be due to “habituation” to their situation.
The researchers warned their study could not show conclusively that an improving marriage results in better health. But assuming this was the case, “then marriage counseling for couples with deteriorating relationships may have added benefits in terms of physical health,” the authors wrote.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
