Relationship Status-Based Health Disparities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Previous research finds that marriage is a privileged family form with health benefits. These health advantages may have shifted during the pandemic, as more time was spent at home and resources strained. This study compares differences in three health outcomes across relationship statuses between April and December 2020 using a nationally-representative US survey, the Household Pulse Survey (N = 1,422,733). As the pandemic progressed, larger differences emerged when comparing married and never married respondents' probabilities of fair or poor health, depression, and anxiety as never married people had the steepest decline in health, even adjusting for pandemic-related stressors (e.g., food insufficiency). Yet, widowed and divorced/separated respondents' greater probabilities of these thr

SUBMITTER: Thomeer MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9111917 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature