If you’ve ever wondered whether or how divorce (or death of a spouse) affect a person’s health, a recently published study on mature singles sheds some light on the subject.

The study finds that the Single Again population experiences a lasting decline in health and/or mobility, even if they marry again.

Interestingly, never-marrieds tend to have fewer chronic health and / or mobility problems than those who are widowed or divorced.

The study attributes the statistics to the effects of the stress associated with the death of a spouse or figurative death of a marriage.

But the statistical correlation does not prove causality.

On the other hand, according to other experiments, marital strife also tends to weaken a spouse’s immune system – rather dramatically.

So staying together does not necessarily improve health at all…

Read more in this New York Times article: Divorce, It Seems, Can Make You Ill.