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Cited by 51Health disparities and outcomesAging, Health, and DisabilityFamily Dynamics and Relationships

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Life expectancy and active life expectancy by marital status among older U.S. adults: Results from the U.S. Medicare Health Outcome Survey (HOS)

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Jia, Haomiao, Lubetkin, Erica I.·2020·SSM - Population Health
DOI 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100642PMC PMC7452000
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Previous investigations of the relationship between marital status and life expectancy and healthy life expectancy rely on the assumption that participants will remain in a given marital status until death. This study estimated total life expectancy (TLE) and active life expectancy (ALE) for respondents by their baseline marital status using a large longitudinal sample of the U.S. community-dwelling elderly population. METHODS: Data were from the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey Cohort 15 (2012 baseline, 2014 follow-up). We included respondents aged ≥65 years (n = 164,597). Multi-state models estimated TLE and ALE by marital status to allow participants' marital status to change during the remaining lifetime. RESULTS: Between 65 and 85 years, married men and women had a longer TLE and ALE than unmarried men and women. For example, at 65 years, TLE for married men was 18.6 years, 2.2 years longer than unmarried men, and ALE for married men was 12.3 years, 2.4 years longer than unmarried men. Similarly, at 65 years, TLE for married women was 21.1 years, 1.5 years longer than unmarried women, and ALE for married women was 13.0 years, 2.0 years longer than unmarried women. Such marriage protection effects decreased with age. In subgroups of unmarried persons, never married persons had the shortest TLE and ALE among men, and never married, divorced, and widowed persons had a similar, and shorter, TLE and ALE among women. The difference in TLE between married and unmarried persons was smaller after adjusting for baseline activity limitation status. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides additional evidence for marriage's protective effect, with the magnitude of protection being greater for younger as compared to older persons. Selection bias was a large contributor to longer life expectancy among married persons.

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  • Individuals over 65 who are married have an increased life expectancy of ~2 years compared to non-married individuals.

    “Additionally, individuals over 65 who are married have an increased life expectancy of ~2 years compared to non-married individuals [77].”

    From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [77]

    The Results report that at age 65, married men had 2.2 more expected years of life than unmarried men, and married women had 1.5 more. That supports an approximate two-year difference at age 65, but not for everyone over 65: the difference decreased with age and disappeared at about ages 85–87. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • There is evidence of long-term health benefits of being in a committed partnership.

    “Although the loss of a relationship can be devastating, there is evidence of long-term health benefits of being in a committed partnership [76,77].”

    From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [77]

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Research works printed but not linked: 34

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Metadata

Authors
Jia, H., & Lubetkin, E. I.
Affiliations
Columbia University (US)
Corresponding author
Lubetkin, Erica I.
ORCID
Venue
SSM - Population Health
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-12
Volume
12
Pages
100642
ISSN
2352-8273 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100642
PMC
PMC7452000
OpenAlex
W3049191835
Cited by
51
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4
FWCI
2.91
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • SSM - Population Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • CUNY Academic Works (City University of New York) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
Keywords
marital status, life expectancy, active life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, older adults, never married, divorced women, widowed, activity limitation, selection bias, multi-state models, Medicare Health Outcomes Survey

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