Marital Dissolutions and the Health of Older Individuals in a Rural African Context

Research from high-income countries has often found a negative relationship between marital dissolutions and health. This paper assesses that relationship among older sub-Saharan Africans, on a now-aging continent. Such individuals are likely to be at risk of a dissolution, or have already experienc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2017-07, Vol.72 (4), p.656-664
Main Author: Myroniuk, Tyler W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aging
Aging - physiology
Aging - psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diagnostic Self Evaluation
Dissolution
Divorce
Divorce - psychology
Divorce - statistics & numerical data
Female
Health status
Health Status Disparities
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Malawi - epidemiology
Male
Marriage
Mental health
Mental Health - statistics & numerical data
Middle Aged
Older people
Original
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural Population
Socioeconomic Factors
Statistics as Topic
Widowhood - psychology
Widowhood - statistics & numerical data
Widows & widowers
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Summary:Research from high-income countries has often found a negative relationship between marital dissolutions and health. This paper assesses that relationship among older sub-Saharan Africans, on a now-aging continent. Such individuals are likely to be at risk of a dissolution, or have already experienced one, due to high rates of marriage. Data from over 1,200 rural Malawians, age 45+, are employed from the 2008 and 2010 waves of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health. Cross-sectional and lagged dependent variable regressions examine the relationship between marital dissolutions and 4 measures of self-reported health: retrospective health, relative health (compared with others in one's village), and age-standardized SF-12 mental and physical health scales. Worse relative, mental, and physical health are associated with being currently divorced/widowed compared with being married. However, worse retrospective health is linked to becoming divorced/widowed between 2008 and 2010. Those divorced/widowed prior to 2008, and who remained so through 2010, are in worse relative and physical health. The findings question the relative hardship of marital dissolutions for those who have managed to survive into old age, and call for the collection of more detailed longitudinal data on older Africans on this topic.
ISSN:1079-5014
1758-5368
DOI:10.1093/geronb/gbw077