The Contribution of Intermediary Factors to Marital Status Differences in Self-Reported Health

The aim of this study is to estimate the relative contributions of psychosocial conditions, material circumstances, and health behaviors to differences in physical and mental health by marital status. Data on 3,510 Dutch persons who were part of the GLOBE study, aged 25-74 years, are used. Multiple logistic regression models show that never-married, divorced, and widowed men have higher morbidity rates than married men. For women, the health differences are almost solely due to excess morbidity among divorced women. We found that psychosocial conditions contributed most to the explanation of morbidity differences among men (25%-50%), but material circumstances contributed most among women (50%-100%).