How Does the Age Gap Between Partners Affect Their Survival? |
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Authors: | Sven Drefahl |
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Institution: | (1) Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA;(2) International Center for Research on Women, Washington, DC, USA;(3) Department of Community Medicine, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe;(4) San Francisco Department of Public Health, 25 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102-6033, USA;(5) The Harare Beerhall Intervention, Harare, Zimbabwe;(6) Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; |
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Abstract: | I use hazard regression methods to examine how the age difference between spouses affects their survival. In many countries,
the age difference between spouses at marriage has remained relatively stable for several decades. In Denmark, men are, on
average, about three years older than the women they marry. Previous studies of the age gap between spouses with respect to
mortality found that having a younger spouse is beneficial, while having an older spouse is detrimental for one’s own survival.
Most of the observed effects could not be explained satisfactorily until now, mainly because of methodological drawbacks and
insufficiency of the data. The most common explanations refer to selection effects, caregiving in later life, and some positive
psychological and sociological effects of having a younger spouse. The present study extends earlier work by using longitudinal
Danish register data that include the entire history of key demographic events of the whole population from 1990 onward. Controlling
for confounding factors such as education and wealth, results suggest that having a younger spouse is beneficial for men but
detrimental for women, while having an older spouse is detrimental for both sexes. |
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