State of the Union

Old Rivals Couples who've snapped at each other for years may figure they've stuck it out this long -- why split now? Because the longer you stay in an unhappy marriage, the worse it is for your health, and the older you are, the more stress is likely to take a toll. That's the finding of researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, who tracked self-reported data on 1,049 people -- aged 24 to 96 -- who were continuously married for at leas t eight years and were interviewed as part of a University of Michigan survey in 1986, 1989 and 1994. Their study appeared last month in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Cumulative Impact During 90-minute, face-to-face meetings, the participants were asked to assess the state of their marriage through such questions as "How much does your husband/wife make you feel loved and cared for?" Other queries delved into how much a spouse was willing to listen and how often the interviewee felt bothered by the marriage. Positive marriages were associated with better health. Negative experiences didn't affect health at first, but over time, they led to a small drop in health ratings, especially among older people. Study author Debra Umberson, chair of the department of sociology at UT Austin, suspects that older people may be more vulnerable to stress, since they often have chronic health conditions, a weaker immune system and a smaller social support network.

Dial-a-Divorce? The lesson here isn't that older couples who argue occasionally should rush to divorce, said Norman Epstein, director of the marriage and family therapy program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Instead, he said, they should be aware of the possible health impact and not overlook the potential benefits of counseling, no matter how long they've been married or how old they are.

-- Alicia Ault