Divorce is not Necessarily Bad for your Health

Contrary to the findings of other studies, divorce, separation and remarriage are not necessarily bad for your health, according to a new UK-based study.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at UCL Institute of Education, London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, apparently found no evidence to suggest that people who have divorced and remarried are at greater risk of heart or respiratory problems in early middle age. Surprisingly, in the long term some men even appeared to be in better health despite having being divorced.

"Numerous studies have found that married people have better health than unmarried people,” said Dr George Ploubidis, the study’s lead author. "However, our research shows that people born in the late 1950s who live together without marrying, or who experience separation, divorce and remarriage, have very similar levels of health in middle age to those who are married.”

"Previous research has also shown that men experience an initial decline after divorce, but we found that in the long term they tend to revert back to their pre-divorce health status,” he added. “Surprisingly, those men who divorced in their late 30s and did not subsequently remarry, were less likely to suffer from conditions related to diabetes in early middle age compared to those who were married."

According to the study, there were around three million cohabiting partnerships in the UK in 2014 and 12.5 million married couples. The study also states that there were 118,000 divorces in England and Wales in 2012.

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