It may be hard to believe for some, but marriage seems to do a lot of good for men: married men are twice as likely to age better and maintain optimal health, compared to their single peers. This was discovered by a study led by the University of Toronto in Canada and published in the journal International Social Work, which followed 7,000 Canadians for about 3 years. For women, however, the same positive effect did not emerge: for them, no difference was found between married and unmarried peers, although those who were divorced or widowed seemed to be worse off than those who remained single.
The researchers led by Mabel defined optimal aging as the absence of serious physical and mental illnesses and the presence of high levels of happiness and good health reported by the participants themselves. According to the authors of the study, the success of life as a couple in making you age at your best lies above all in maintaining social bonds: “It may be that married people encourage each other to adopt or maintain positive behaviors for health – says David Burnes, one of the researchers who participated in the analysis – such as quitting smoking or exercising regularly”.
The research also found that lifestyle factors such as maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active, not suffering from insomnia and not smoking are key to maintaining optimal health in old age. “It’s really important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, no matter how old you are,” says study co-author Esme Fuller-Thomson: “For example, it’s never too late to stop smoking.” The researchers stress the value of understanding gender differences in aging to better help people maintain their health for as long as possible.
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– 2024-08-23 07:03:16
