Movie poster for Old School, a 2003 Hollywood film about the college antics of singles
SYDNEY, 11 August 2006: If you are single, you will probably die earlier than your married friends, U.S. researchers say.
"The risks of being never married … rival the risks of having increased blood pressure or high cholesterol," said Robert Kaplan of the University of California at Los Angeles, who led the study.
Kaplan and co-author Richard Kronick of the University of California at San Diego assessed the poor heath risks singles face. The findings were based on two sets of data: the 1989 U.S. National Health Interview Survey in and the 1997 U.S. national death index.
The study - to be published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health in September, suggests singles face higher risks of dying: five times more likely to die of infectious diseases; twice as likely to die in accidents, homicides, or suicides; and a 38 per cent more likely to die of heart disease.
Other socio-economic factors attributed to the statistics include social isolation and a lack of support from children and other relatives, Kaplan said.
"Accumulated evidence suggests that social isolation increases the risk of premature death. Marriage is a rough proxy for social connectedness," Kaplan told CBS television.
Of the 67,000 adult Americans surveyed in 1989, half were married and one-fifth were never married. By 1997, old age and poor health prevailed as the main causes of death.
But the trend of marriage and longevity emerged as a significant factor for living a long life. When the researchers excluded the age and health factor, those had never been married were 58 per cent more likely to have died.
And they found bachelors aged between 19 and 44, exhibited the highest risk of dying.
But the reseachers also pointed out that the tendency for single people to engage in unsafe-sex may also increase mortality factors such as HIV infection.
But the researchers failed to factor in sexual preference or cohabitation status in the study, according to WebMD, an online health care information portal. It neglected the high number of deaths caused by AIDS that occurred during the eight-year period, it added.
The researchers found that other than risky sexual behaviours, singles tend to drink less and exercise more.
