Study: Divorce May Harm Health

Womens' health may be negatively affected by a divorce, according to an Iowa State University study.

The study looked at what happened to rural women's health after their divorce and compared it to the health of women who stayed married, according to Fred Lorenz, co-author of the report.

“What we found was that the act of getting a divorce produced no immediate effects on (physical) health, but it did have effects on mental health,” Lorenz said. “Ten years later, those effects on mental health led to effects in physical health.”

The findings were reaped from data collected over the course of 10 years from Iowa women who were interviewed four times from the early 90's to 2001. All 416 of the interviewed women were mothers of adolescents at the start of the study. Of these women, 102 of them recently divorced.

The Findings

Immediately after the divorce, women reported seven percent more psychological distress than the women who remained married. At this point, there were still no differences in physical wellbeing.

Ten years later however, the divorcees reported 37 percent more physical health issues, but no extra psychological stress that could be linked directly with the divorce, according to Lorenz.

The interviewed women were given a checklist of 46 illnesses ranging from colds to cancer and heart conditions. The women checked off which ailments they had experienced and returned them to the researchers.

Lorenz said there appeared to be a link between the different types of stress associated with divorce – such as financial problems, and parenting problems – and the increase in physical illness. He further said that divorced women have worse job opportunities and less of a support system, especially in rural areas. These worse jobs may offer worse quality health care, which could be a factor.

Another of the study's co-authors, K.A.S. Wickrama, said that “it looks like (divorced women) are trapped in this vicious circle of financial problems and other stressful life events…”

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