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Elderly White Americans More Likely Than Blacks to
Die Soon After Spouse
Study finds no 'widowhood effect' among blacks
March 1, 2006 – The "widowhood effect" -- the
increased probability of death among new widows and widowers -- is large
and enduring among elderly white couples but undetectable among black
couples, suggesting that blacks may somehow manage to extend marriage's
well-documented health benefits into widowhood. The new research from
Harvard University studied 410,272 elderly American couples.
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The results, by Harvard sociologists Felix Elwert
and Nicholas A. Christakis, are published in the February issue of
American Sociological Review, available March 1.
"The health effects of a spouse's death differ
radically between blacks and whites," says Elwert, a doctoral student in
sociology.
"We found strong evidence of the widowhood effect
among white couples: Men were 18 percent more likely to die shortly
after their wives' deaths, and women were 16 percent more likely to die
shortly after their husbands' deaths. By contrast, the estimated effect
of a black spouse's death on the mortality of his or her surviving
spouse is essentially zero."
Upon marrying, blacks and whites appear to receive
the same health benefits, which previous research has attributed to
factors such as emotional support, economic well-being, caretaking when
ill, enhanced social support and kinship, and the promoting of healthy
behaviors and discouraging of risk-taking.
Elwert and Christakis suggest such benefits may be
longer-lasting for blacks, persisting even after a spouse's death.
Citing prior research, the investigators identify
several possible reasons for this enduring marriage benefit among
blacks. Almost twice as likely to live with relatives and far more
active in religious organizations, elderly blacks tend to have stronger
and more extensive social networks than elderly whites. Black couples
are also less likely than whites to adhere to a rigidly gendered
division of labor, which may reduce mutual dependence.
"Current policy debates on the benefits of
marriage, and efforts to promote marriage, tend to assume that marriage
exerts a uniform effect on everybody," says Christakis, professor of
sociology in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, professor of health
care policy at Harvard Medical School, and an attending physician at
Massachusetts General Hospital.
"Given that widowhood appears more harmful in some
groups than others, our results call into question the
'one-size-fits-all' perspective on marital relations."
Elwert and Christakis' study, which followed
Americans age 67 or older from 1993 to 2002, included 4,414 interracial
couples, the largest such population ever analyzed. Among these couples,
they found that the wife's race drives the widowhood effect: Couples
with a white husband and a black wife experience a much lower widowhood
effect than couples with a black husband and a white wife, a finding
that may reflect wives' more active role in shaping a couple's social
network.
Elwert and Christakis also found no support for the
widespread view that widowhood is more harmful to husbands' health than
it is to wives' health.
During the first month of bereavement, the risk of
death increases 62 percent for women and 52 percent for men, declining
sharply until the third month of widowhood for women and the sixth month
for men.
Among both genders, the risk of death then
continues to fall until the second year of bereavement, from which point
it remains steady and elevated relative to married individuals.
Elwert and Christakis' research was supported by
the National Institutes of Health.
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