The short-term and long-term effects of divorce on mortality risk in a large Finnish cohort, 1990–2003

Abstract

This study investigated time patterns of post-divorce excess mortality. Using register-based data, we followed 252,641 married Finns from 1990 until subsequent date of divorce and death until 2003. Among men, excess mortality is highest immediately after divorce, followed by a decline over 8 years. Among women, excess mortality shows little variation over time, and is lower than among men at all durations of divorce. Social and economic factors—largely adjustment for post-divorce factors—explain about half of the excess mortality. This suggests that excess mortality is partly mediated through poor social and economic resources. Mortality attributable to accidental, violent, and alcohol-related causes is pronounced shortly after divorce. It shows a strong pattern of reduction over the next 4 years among divorced men, and is high for only 6 months after divorce among divorced women. These findings emphasize the importance of short-term psychological distress, particularly among men.

Keywords:

• divorce
• mortality
• marital status
• longitudinal studies
• Finland

Notes

1. Niina Metsä-Simola and Pekka Martikainen are at the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, PO Box 18, 00014 Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: [email protected]

2. The authors acknowledge the support of the Academy of Finland, and are grateful to Statistics Finland for permission (TK–53–1783–96) to use the data and to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.