Past studies have highlighted the benefits of marriage, suggesting that married people tend to be healthier than their single, divorced or widowed counterparts. The theory was backed up by the fact that being married gives you more access to social support and economic resources while being single has negative consequences upon health.

But a new research study shows that the gap between married and unmarried people has changed over the past few decades. The health status of never-married adults increased significantly over time, researchers found.

“Married people are still healthier than unmarried people, but the gap between the married and never-married is closing, especially for men,” said researcher Hui Liu, professor of sociology at Michigan State University in the US. The study, entitled “The Times They Are a Changin': Marital Status and Health Differentials from 1972 to 2003,” appears in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

One of the reasons for the general improvement of single adults’ health is that unmarried people have greater access to social support nowadays than they did in the past, he study’s lead author, Hui Liu, explained.

Researchers analysed National Health Interview Survey data from a 30-year period from 1972 to 2002 and found that the health status of the never-married has improved for all race and gender groups examined: men, women, blacks and whites. The health of married women has also improved, while the health of married men remained stable.

The research also suggests that “encouraging marriage in order to promote health may be misguided.”

Previous studies showed that married individuals have the lowest rates of depressions and schizophrenias compare to the unmarried, married individuals have lower rates of alcoholism than their unmarried counterparts, lower suicide rates than unmarried ones and they are less likely to be lonely because they always have someone to share their feelings and thoughts.

“If you get married and then divorced, that will hurt your health,” Liu jokingly said.