Marital status and 5-year mortality : A population-based prospective cohort study

Objectives: The aim was to investigate the association between baseline marital status and mortality using survival (Cox-regression) analysis. Study design: This is a prospective cohort study. Methods: The public health survey by Scania in 2008 was linked to the Swedish cause of death register. This prospective cohort study includes 12,245 men and 14,969 women aged 18–80 years, and 538 men and 362 women of them died during the 5.3-year follow-up. Results: Unmarried, divorced, and widowed men had significantly higher hazard rate ratios (HRRs) of all-cause mortality than married/cohabitating men. For women, the HRRs of these groups did not significantly differ from those of the married/cohabitating reference group. Conclusions: The results are in accordance with a previous study that only compared those living alone with those cohabitating