One analysis suggests that single people are up to 80 percent more likely to have depressive symptoms than those who are married.
Researchers have found that saying “I do” appears to have a protective effect against depression, which affects around 16 per cent of adults in the UK.
The risk of depression also appeared to be higher in men and in those who had higher levels of education.
And the findings can help identify groups at higher risk for mental illness, experts say.
Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Macau analyzed data collected from questionnaires from more than 100,000 people in seven countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Ireland, South Korea, China and Indonesia.
Researchers have found that saying “I do” appears to have a protective effect against depression, which affects around 16 per cent of adults in the UK (file image)
The risk of depression also appeared to be higher in men and those with higher levels of education (file image)
Writing in the journal Nature Human Behavior, researchers said: “Depression represents a major global public health challenge, and marital status has been recognized as a potential risk factor” (file image)
Over a follow-up period of up to 18 years, they found that being single was linked to a 79 percent higher risk of depressive symptoms compared to those who were married.
Divorced or separated people had a 99 percent higher risk of depressive symptoms, while widowed people had a 64 percent higher risk.
They found that single participants from Western countries, including the United Kingdom, had a higher risk of depression than their counterparts from Eastern countries.
Scientists suggest that lower rates of depressive symptoms among married couples could be due to better social support, a better financial situation, and couples having a positive influence on each other’s well-being.
Writing in the journal Nature Human Behavior they said: ‘Depression represents a major global public health challenge, and marital status has been recognized as a potential risk factor.
‘Our analysis revealed that single people had a higher risk of depressive symptoms than their married counterparts in all countries.
“This increased vulnerability emerged especially among single, highly educated men in Western nations.”
They said that in certain countries, drinking alcohol and smoking worsened depressive symptoms in single, widowed or divorced people.
Despite the findings, experts have previously described the idea of marital happiness as “largely a myth” and there is “hardly any evidence” that getting married leads to a better life.
Scientists suggest that lower rates of depressive symptoms among married couples could be due to better social support, a better financial situation and couples having a positive influence on each other’s well-being (file image)
Over a follow-up period of up to 18 years, they found that being single was linked to a 79 percent higher risk of depressive symptoms compared to those who are married (file image)
Last year, scientists reviewed dozens of studies to examine differences in suicide, loneliness, physical health and happiness between married and unmarried people.
They found that people who remain single tend to have “very similar results” to those who have said “I do.”
Psychologist Dr Bella DePaulo, who led the previous study, said: “It is widely believed that people who marry become happier and healthier than when they were single.”
‘In fact, this belief is so widespread and rarely questioned, that it is more than a belief: it is more of a mythology or an ideology. And like many myths, this one is wrong.
‘Studies that follow the same people for many years of their lives find little evidence that people who marry become happier or healthier than before; There’s even some evidence that people lose some of their health after getting married.’
He warned that single people can be stereotyped as “miserable, lonely and lonely, selfish and self-centered, and wanting nothing more than to be in a relationship.”