MORTALITY BY CAUSE OF DEATH AND MARITAL-STATUS IN SPAIN

A number of studies have shown an association between marital status a nd mortality, with most of them finding a lower mortality in married a s compared to unmarried persons. The purpose of this study is to show the differences in mortality from the leading causes of death by marit al status among men and women in Spain. An analysis was made of person s aged 25 years and older who died in Spain during 1991. The mortality differences by marital status and sex were analysed for all the death s and for the most frequent causes of death, using the ratios of age a djusted death rates calculated from Poisson log-linear models. For bot h men and women, mortality was always higher in single and widowed per sons than in married persons, except for a non-statistically significa nt mortality from diabetes mellitus and cirrhosis of the liver in sing le women. Divorced and separated men had a higher mortality than marri ed men for all the causes of death taken together; the mortality among divorced and separated women, on the other hand, was lower than in ma rried women. Divorced and separated men and women generally had a lowe r mortality than married persons for the different causes of death, ex cept for traffic accidents, suicide, cirrhosis of the liver and HIV in fection, where it was higher. The results obtained are similar to the findings of most studies in other countries, in which a lower mortalit y has been observed in married persons as compared to those who are wi dowed or single. However, the data showing that divorced and separated persons have a tower mortality from some causes of death than married persons stand in contrast to most published studies. This work has sh own that unmarried persons are not a homogeneous group, in that divorc ed and separated persons are very different from those who are single or widowed.