Marriage benefits health more so for men than woman

I thought my last post on "Why it's NOT rubbish being single" was a strong statement and final answer to the question. Apparently, a research soon to be released by Hui Lu from Michigan State University with some interesting facts based on National Health Interview Survey data from a 30-year period from 1972 to 2002

Consider this:
Marriage tends to make people healthier, happier and richer, and that's especially true for men.

Hear that? Go get married, guys. It's for your own good.

Self-reported health status of never-married adults increased significantly over time. At the same time, the self-reported health status of married women also increased, so the gap between married and never-married women's health stayed about the same.

Still a long way to go, single girls.

However, never-married men narrowed the health gap between themselves and married men.

Hope this won't make the number of men who want to commit even smaller.

People who had been married in the past, including those widowed or divorced, reported declines in their overall health status.

I wonder if there is data comparing never married vs the divorced vs the re-married. Does that complicate things even more?

The conclusion: "Married people are still healthier than unmarried people, but the gap between the married and never-married is closing, especially for men." That said, one last thing to take away from the research is: “encouraging marriage in order to promote health may be misguided.” (oh, well.)