Good Lifestyle

Unlike popular belief, the divorce rate culminated in 1980 and has regularly declined since. Nevertheless, according to the American psychological association, nearly half of the weddings in the United States end with the divorce, and the divorce rate is even higher for those who notice.

An increasing amount of research has indicated that divorce has a surprising effect on longevity. A2011 study found That adults who divorced were 23% more likely to die younger than those who had remained married and divorced men were twice as likely to meet an early grave than women. But it was difficult to determine whether divorced divorcation has actually contributed to premature death, or if the factors that caused divorce (that is to say a substance abuse or volatile behavior), corresponded to those who cause mortality. early.

Now, aNew study published in Annals of behavioral medicineshed light on how the divorced could bring people to die younger.

The researchers at the University of Arizona have examined the data from the English longitudinal study of aging, a long-term health study of adults over 50 living in Great Britain, which included seven waves of data collected all The two years since 2002.

The data included 5,786 participants, of which 926 were divorced or separated and chronic on self-reported life satisfaction, exercise frequency and smoking habits, as well as their lung function and level of inflammation. They also kept a trace of people who died during the study and found that, disturbing, those who were divorced or separated had a risk of dying of 46% greater than their married counterparts.

As researchers have already speculated, much of this is because of the bad habits that people tend to adopt to deal with the emotional distress of the divorce. Those who have been divorced were much more likely to smoke and have had poorer pulmonary functions. And, as we know too well now,even have a single cigarette a day can shorten your life.

Women in particular were more likely to report more levels of life and exercise after their divorce. A growing research corpusindicates that regular exercise is crucial for longevity, likehas a positive perspective of your life.

While one of the reasons people tend to adopt these bad post-separation habits, it is certainly an emotional distress, the researchers think that another reason could be that people have no more partner for Monitor their behavior.

"The control of health partners could play a role", principal authorKyle J. Bourassa noted. "If you imagine a husband or a woman who does not smoke and that their partner does not do it, we could try to influence the behavior of the other. In many ways, when relationships end, we lose this important social control of our health behaviors. "

This corroborates with previous research on the said "ripple" effect "who found that the behavior of your partner has a major impact on your own.

Of course, complementary studies are needed to really determine whether the link between divorce and early death is really correlated or causalal, especially since the study did not take into account whether participants have already smoked during their marriage or started after their separation. Additional studies on how divorce affects the diet and a person's relationship with alcohol are also needed (after all,These pictures of sadBen Affleck After breakingJennifer Garner, indicative as they are in the way a person behaves after divorce, is not enough to constitute a complete study).

Bourassa also suggested creating more than one support system for people crossing a divorce.

"We have interventions for people who smoke, and we have interventions for people who do not have enough exercise, so if we know someone who is divorced, we should perhaps ask," Fumez- you? "Do you have enough physical activity?" "He said." Finding that life satisfaction seems to link divorce to physical activity levels also suggests that interventions aimed at improving the satisfaction of people's lives and psychological well-being could translate downstream to Physical health improvements. "

For more information on the link between marriage and physical health, readWhy wedding is great for your brain. And for tips on how to avoid divorcing, checkThe 40 worst married mistakes do.