Staying single may shorten life span Staying single all your life may not be good for your health. That's the conclusion of new research that shows that people who never marry face an even greater chance of dying early than people who have been divorced, separated or widowed. All of these groups had shorter survival prospects than people who were currently married. The effect held true across all age groups, even younger ones, the researchers noted. "This seems to happen all the way along," said lead researcher Robert Kaplan, professor of the department of health services at the University of California, School of Public Health. His team published the findings in the September issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Previous research had found a connection between being married and a longer life expectancy and, more specifically, between being married and a lower incidence of heart disease. Marriage is considered a rough proxy for "social connectedness," which experts believe can help people live longer. Most of these studies, however, haven't distinguished between people who are separated, divorced or widowed and those who have never been married. "We're getting at never-married people," Kaplan said. "That hasn't been looked at as much." The authors argued that widowed and divorced people are more likely to have children and are thus more likely to be socially connected. Never-married people would not have these benefits. (Agencies)

一輩子單身對于健康可能沒什么好處。 這是一項最新研究得出的結論。研究表明，從未結過婚的人比那些離婚、分居或喪偶的人英年早逝的危險要高得多。而以上這些人群的壽命又都比已婚人士短。 研究人員指出，這個結論適合于各年齡段的人，年輕人也不例外。 加尼福尼亞大學公共衛生學院健康服務系的羅伯特·卡普蘭教授是研究小組的組長，他說："這個道理在任何時候都適用。" 該小組的研究結果在《流行病學和社區健康》九月刊上發表。 此前的研究發現，結婚可以讓人長壽，更確切的說，結婚可以降低患心臟病的危險。婚姻被認為是"社會關系"的一種簡單形式，而專家們認為社會關系能使人的壽命延長。 然而，這些研究中的大部分沒有將分居、離婚、喪偶的人和從未結過婚的人區分開來。 卡普蘭說："我們主要針對的是從未結過婚的人。目前對這個人群的研究還不夠。" 研究報告的作者們認為，喪偶和離婚的人有孩子的可能性較大，所以他們還是有一定的社會關系。而從未結過婚的人則沒有這些好處。 (英語點津姍姍編輯)