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Study

Individuals Who Never Marry 2x as Likely to Die Prematurely

C. Price

Written by: C. Price

C. Price

C. Price is part of DatingAdvice.com's content team. She writes advice articles, how-to guides, and studies — all relating to dating, relationships, love, sex, and more.

Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Guevara-Castro brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to ensure DatingAdvice articles have been edited for overall clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement. She has worked at The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Gwinnett Daily News, and The Gainesville Sun covering lifestyle topics.

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Reviewed by: Amber Brooks

Amber Brooks

Amber Brooks is the Editor-in-Chief at DatingAdvice.com. When she was growing up, her family teased her for being "boy crazy," but she preferred to think of herself as a budding dating and relationship expert. As an English major at the University of Florida, Amber honed her communication skills to write clearly, knowledgeably, and passionately about a variety of subjects. Now with over 1,800 lifestyle articles to her name, Amber brings her tireless wit and relatable experiences to DatingAdvice.com. She has been quoted as a dating expert by The Washington Times, Cosmopolitan, The New York Post, Bustle, Salon, Well+Good, and AskMen.

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Marriage may hold the key to living a long life, says one study.

The study evaluated information coming out of the University of North Carolina Alumni Heart Study.

Looking at responses from 4,802 individuals, researchers found being married correlated directly with surviving until old age.

Specifically, the study noted being married during midlife correlated with a lowered risk of premature death.

“Individuals who either never married or who lost a spouse

and never remarried were twice as likely to die prematurely.”

According to the data, individuals who either never married or who lost a spouse and never remarried were twice as likely to die prematurely than those individuals who maintained a stable marriage or permanent relationship throughout their entire adult life.

However, researcher Dr. Ilene Siegler notes it’s too early to connect a long life specifically to marriage, noting marriage may do nothing more than offer social support for individuals – support that may be acquired through other forms of interpersonal relationships:

“These patterns appear to provide different levels of emotional and functional social support, which has been shown to be related to mortality. Social ties during midlife are important to help us understand premature mortality.”

Source: Annals of Behavioral Medicine.