Re: Women's longevity linked to avoiding risky habits

Stupendous wrote:
> 
> Look, people don't die just because their spouse died.

It's a big stress, the biggest on the Holmes Rahe scale, if I recall
correctly.


Soc Sci Med. 2002 Jan;54(2):245-54.     Related Articles, Links

    Historical trends of survival among widows and widowers.

    Mineau GP, Smith KR, Bean LL.

    Department of Oncological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake
City 84112-5550, USA. [EMAIL PROTECTED]

    One of the most consistent findings in social demography is that
recently widowed individuals, male or female, have higher rates of
mortality than comparable married persons. These results are based
generally on contemporary studies in developed nations where life
expectancy is high. Because of data limitations, there are few studies
available to determine whether these findings also occur when mortality
rates were higher. This study uses the Utah Population Database that was
developed from extensive family genealogies and now linked to Utah death
certificates. These data make it possible to employ life course analysis
of four marriage cohorts extending from 1860 through 1904 with mortality
follow-up to 1990. This approach is used to compare mortality risks of
widowed males and females relative to comparable married individuals.
Covariates included in the study are remarriage, as well as religion and
number of children ever born; these are all hypothesized to have
protective effects on mortality risks for widowed men and women.
Analysis of these data indicates that there are significant differences
in the mortality risk for widowed men and women, and it is widowed men
who have an excess risk of dying in every cohort and nearly every age. A
consistent pattern of excess mortality in the comparison of married and
widowed women was not observed. There are significant female and male
differences in the effect of religion which was treated as a proxy for
life style and social support: however, remarriage as a proxy for social
support has similar protective effects on the surviving spouse.

    PMID: 11824929 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]