Male Longevity and Age Differences Between Spouses

Foster, Dorothy A.; Klinger-Vartabedian, Laurel; Wispé, Lauren

doi:10.1093/geronj/39.1.117

Cited by 25 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Among the 324 ever-married men of Villagrande who died above age 80, 41 (13%) have been married more than once and the age difference with their (last) spouse, for 136 of them (39%), was larger than 10 years (median 9.1) while only 25 (7%) had an older spouse. Such larger age differences between spouses are favorable for male longevity [66]. In addition, after widowhood, older women tend to live more often alone while older men will live preferably with an unmarried child taking into account that entering a nursing home is an exception for the population concerned.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Population Where Men Live As Long As Women: Villagrande Strisaili, Sardinia

Poulain

Pes

Salaris

2011

Journal of Aging Research

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Usually women live longer than men and female centenarians largely outnumber male centenarians. The findings of previous studies identifying a population with a femininity ratio close to 1.0 among centenarians in the mountainous region of Sardinia was the starting point of an in-depth investigation in order to compare mortality trajectories between men and women in that population. The exceptional survival of men compared to women emerges from the comparison with similar Italian data. Age exaggeration for men has been strictly excluded as a result of the age validation procedure. The discussion suggests that besides biological/genetic factors, the behavioral factors including life style, demographic behavior, family support, and community characteristics may play an important role. No single explanation is likely to account for such an exceptional situation and a fully integrated multidisciplinary approach is urgently needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Population Where Men Live As Long As Women: Villagrande Strisaili, Sardinia

Poulain

Pes

Salaris

2011

Journal of Aging Research

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“…Educational dissimilarity has been found to be significantly associated with a variety of variables: increased incidence of coronary disease in men (Shekelle et al 1969), increased incidence of coronary disease in both sexes (Bruhn et al 1966), mortality from ischaemic heart disease in men (Suarez & Barrett-Connor, 1984), and myocardial infarction (Szklo et al 1976) and sudden death from coronary disease (Talbott et al 1977) in women. Age difference, defined as husband older than wife, was found to be significantly associated with lower blood pressure (Speers et al 1989) and lower mortality (Foster et al 1984;Vera et al 1985) in men and with higher blood pressure (Speers et al 1989) and higher mortality (Fox et al 1979) in women. We can surmise that the effect of educational dissimilarity and age difference on blood pressure level, ischaemic heart morbidity and mortality is due primarily to spouse interaction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Spouse similarity for psychological distress and well-being: a population study

1994

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SynopsisWhile spouse similarity for psychiatric morbidity has been the object of numerous studies, most of these focused on clinical samples and, consequently, the interpretation of their results is limited by the existence of a selection bias. In this study, conducted on a sample of 845 general population couples, significant spouse similarity was observed for psychological distress and well-being, characterized by a marked symmetry in the relation between spouses' scores. The sex differences observed in many earlier studies would appear essentially to be artefactual. Spouse similarity was also found to be significant in the subpopulation of couples married less than two years, which pointed to assortative mating for psychological distress and well-being. While many studies have found educational dissimilarity and age difference between spouses to be associated with certain health variables, such as high blood pressure and coronary heart disease, these variables do not have a significant influence on individual levels of psychological distress and well-being. Spouse similarity for socio-demographic characteristics does not play a significant role in explaining spouse similarity for mental health. Consequently, assortative mating for psychological distress and well-being would appear to be primarily due to personal preference.

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“…Census information on current marital status was included in modelling of health outcomes in 1991 and 2001 (by definition, all men included in the analysis were in their first marriage in 1981). There is some suggestion in the literature that wife's age may be associated with health differentials of married men (Foster et al, 1984) and so we included this as a co-variate in analyses of mortality and, for sub-samples of men who were still married, also in our analyses of differentials in health status in 1991 and 2001.…”

Section: Grundy and Tomassinimentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatherhood history and later life health and mortality in England and Wales: A record linkage study

Grundy¹,

Tomassini

2006

Biodemography and Social Biology

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Fatherhood is an important domain of the lives of most men but, in contrast to extensive research into associations between marriage and health, possible effects of paternity on later life health and mortality have attracted relatively little attention. Of those studies that have been undertaken, many relate to historical or less developed country populations with high levels of fertility and much less is known about associations in contemporary developed societies. In this paper we use data from a large nationally representative record linkage study of men in England and Wales to analyse associations between aspects of paternity history and subsequent mortality and health in a sample of 20,260 mature men in long-term first marriages. At entry to the study in 1981 sample members had a mean age of 63 and a mean duration of marriage of 38 years. Mortality was observed for a twenty three year period and indicators of health status measured ten (in 1991) and twenty years (in 2001) after entry into the analysis. Paternity characteristics investigated included number of children born and, among men who were fathers, early or late paternity; experience of a particularly short or long interval between marriage and first birth; and experience of one or more short intervals between births. Socioeconomic characteristics included in the analysis were based on measures relating to educational attainment, occupational social class and housing tenure, in the latter two cases observed at more than one point of time. Contrary to our hypotheses, results showed no later life disadvantages of childlessness in this sample of men who had experienced long term first marriages. However, aspects of paternity history were associated with later life health and mortality. Most notably men who had had a child before the age of 23 had higher mortality and higher odds of poor health in 1991 and 2001 than other fathers, while men who had a child at ages 40 or over had lower mortality and lower risks of long term illness in 1991. Men who had had four or more children also appeared to have worse later life health in some of the health indicators used in this study. Limitations of the data include absence of information on contacts with children or on health related behaviours hypothesised to be associated with fatherhood. Results nevertheless suggest long-term consequences of particular paternity pathways.

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Male Longevity and Age Differences Between Spouses

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

A Population Where Men Live As Long As Women: Villagrande Strisaili, Sardinia

A Population Where Men Live As Long As Women: Villagrande Strisaili, Sardinia

Spouse similarity for psychological distress and well-being: a population study

Fatherhood history and later life health and mortality in England and Wales: A record linkage study

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