Diabetes Risk Decreases Among Men Living in an Unhappy Marriage

• Diabetics need to take care of their health by strict diet control, regular exercise and taking their medications on a regular basis.
• A study finds an association between marital quality and diabetes.
• Men who are unhappy in their marriage due to their nagging wife are less likely to develop diabetes.

Diabetes is reportedly the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. A survey conducted in the US in 2012 shows that nearly 9.3 percent of the population (about 29 million Americans) suffered from diabetes. Chronic illness like diabetes could be debilitating and mandates a strict adherence to a complex healthcare system. Diabetic people need to carefully monitor their lifestyle paying particular attention to what they eat.

Study

• A recent study conducted by sociologists at Michigan State University (MSU) shows that rocky marriages are not always bad for your health especially when it comes to diabetic men.
• Researchers from MSU analyzed data from the US National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, which was collected over a period of five years from 1,228 married people between the ages of 57 and 85 years. At the end of the study, they noted that 389 participants had developed diabetes.
• The findings were published in Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.

Observation

• The study reveals that unhappy marriage may improve diabetic control in men by slowing its development and also promoting its successful treatment.
• One possible reason for this could be that in an unhappy marriage, wives are constantly nagging and trying to regulate their husband’s health especially if he is neglecting his health or is already suffering from diabetes.
• Thus, an increase in negative marital quality could actually lower the risk of developing diabetes and improve the chances of managing the disease after its onset.
• However, the downside to this was that the wife’s nagging attitude could provoke hostility and emotional distress in a marriage.

Lead investigator Hui Liu, who is an Associate Professor of Sociology at MSU said, "The study challenges the traditional assumption that negative marital quality is always detrimental to health. It also encourages family scholars to distinguish different sources and types of marital quality. Sometimes, nagging is caring."

Results

• Different results were noted by the scientists in men and women.
• Researchers believe that husbands whose wives control their life and eating habits are less likely to even develop the disease and those who were diabetic increased their chances of managing the disease well.
• For women, the results were opposite to that seen in men. In women, a good marriage was related to a lower risk of diabetes. Since women are usually more sensitive than men to the quality of a relationship, it is seen that they are more likely to experience a health boost from a good quality relationship.

Source-Medindia