Long-term trends in marital status mortality differences in The Netherlands 1850-1970.
This article describes the long-term trends in marital status mortality differences in the Netherlands using a unique dataset relating to the period 1850-1970. Poisson regression analysis was applied to calculate relative mortality risks by marital status. For two periods, cause-of-death by marital status could be used. Clear differences in mortality by marital status were observed, with strongly increasing advantages for married men and women and a relative increase in the mortality of widowed compared with non-married people. Excess mortality among single and formerly married men and women was visible in many cause-of-death categories, and this became more widespread during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Hypotheses are formulated that might explain why married men and women underwent a stronger decrease in mortality up until the end of World War II.
van Poppel
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F
Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, The Hague.
Joung
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I
D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012044:Regression Analysis; D017678:Sex Distribution