Consider age when looking for a life partner
By IANSThursday, May 13, 2010
LONDON - Believe it or not - the age gap between you and your spouse can actually hint at how long you would live!
While it had long been assumed that women with younger husbands also live longer, a new study by Sven Drefahl from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) in Germany has shown that this is not the case.
Using data from almost two million Danish couples, Drefahl showed that the best choice for a woman is to marry a man of exactly the same age — an older husband shortens her life and a younger one even more so.
A woman’s life expectancy is shorter the greater the age difference from her husband, irrespective of whether she is younger or older than him.
However, the younger his wife, the longer a man lives.
The mortality risk of a husband who is seven to nine years older than his wife is reduced by 11 percent.
Women marrying a partner seven to nine years younger increase their mortality risk by 20 percent compared to couples where both partners are the same age, a Max Planck Institute release said.
“It appears that the reasons for mortality differences due to the age gap of the spouses remain unclear,” Drefahl added.
