Divorced people are more likely to die from preventable accidents than married counterparts, a new study has suggested.
The new study from sociologists at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania found that single people and those with low educational attainment are at greater risk for accidental death.
The study examines the links among social relationships, socio-economic status and how long and well people live.
The authors found that divorced people are more than twice as likely than married people to die from what the World Health Organization (WHO) cites as the most-preventable causes of accidental death (fire, poisoning and smoke inhalation) and equally likely to die from the least-preventable causes of accidental death (air and water transportation mishaps).
In addition, compared with married adults, single people are twice as likely to die from the most preventable causes of accidental death and equally likely to die from the least preventable causes of accidental death.
The researchers compared 1,302,090 adults aged 18 and older who survived or died from accidents between 1986 and 2006. The data was from multiple years of the National Health Interview Survey, which includes demographic information about participants from throughout the 50 states, including age, race and income.
The study has been published in the journal Social Science Research.