Study: Marriage Increases Your Chances of Surviving Cancer
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In a recent study out of the University of California San Diego, researchers found that in addition to sex, race, ethnicity and birthplace, your marriage status plays a major role in determining whether or not you’ll survive cancer.
The study looked at data from 800,00 cancer patients and found that both single white males and single white females are least likely to survive a cancer diagnosis when compared to their married counterparts—in fact, single men had a 24 percent higher mortality rate than those who were married, while the difference between single and married women was less of a difference at 17 percent.
“Women seek out help for health concerns more frequently than men, and women tend to remind spouses to see their physicians and live a healthy lifestyle,” said Dr. Maria Elena Martinez, lead author of the study and professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at UCS’ School of Medicine.
Whether support from a spouse (or their constant nagging about going to the doctor) is the true reasoning behind why married folks have a better chance of beating cancer has yet to be determined, but it’s something the researchers of the study are going to continue to investigate.
Read more about the study here.
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