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Some evidence for health‐related marriage selection
Author(s) -
Lipowicz Anna
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.22588
Subject(s) - marital status , demography , medicine , selection (genetic algorithm) , educational attainment , visual acuity , gerontology , psychology , population , environmental health , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , economics , ophthalmology , economic growth
Objectives Married people live longer and are healthier than unmarried people. This can be explained in terms of marriage protection and marriage selection. The aim of the present study was to examine the direct effect of marriage selection on health status. Methods Data were collected from the archives of the Lower Silesian Medical Center (DOLMED) in Wrocław, Poland. The sample consisted of 2,265 adult (never married or currently married) men. Subjects were assigned to categories for selected variables, including age, level of education, military category upon conscription, height, hearing acuity, and visual acuity. Military category, objective data gathered upon military conscription at age 18, was used to assess initial health status. To identify any relationships between marital status and health status, generalized linear models with binomially distributed dependent variable were used. Results The never‐married subjects were more likely to have been assigned to lower military categories, which indicates that their health status at age 18 was inferior to those conscripts who would later marry. Hearing acuity and visual acuity were generally worse in never‐married subjects than in married subjects. Never‐married subjects were also more likely to be short and less likely to be tall. Conclusions The results provide evidence for direct health‐related marriage selection in men between 25 and 60 years of age. Poor health status reduces the likelihood of marriage. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 26:747–752, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.