What is marriage? Eternal love, a consolidated life together, unfailing loyalty? Certainly, but not only that. Marriage could also rhyme with obesity, if we are to believe a study published on March 13 by researchers at the National Heart Institute in Warsaw, Poland. From a national survey based on data from 1,098 men and 1,307 women with a median age of 50 years, they established that 35.3% of them had a normal weight, 38.3% were clinically overweight and 26.4% were considered obese, reports the online media New Atlas.
This trend becomes more visible when we make a distinction according to the sex of the subjects: married men have a 62% increased risk of falling into a situation of overweight during marriage, while this risk is 39% for their wives. Of course, obesity results from several factors, but marriage can be seen as a trigger. Diet, physical activity or genetics are all variables to take into account. For women, the consequences of aging and menopause also influence this phenomenon.
The Polish research team, led by Dr. Alicja Cicha-Mikołajczyk from the National Heart Institute in Warsaw, draws an alarming finding for men’s health: married men are three times more likely to be obese than single men. The study explains that living in a small, isolated community—a particularly romantic way of describing a married couple—increases the risk of overweight and obesity.
Raise awareness among at-risk audiences
The researchers are also trying to explain why such a difference between married and single subjects is not as marked among women. According to them, this could be due to social and cultural norms firmly anchored in our societies.
“Age and marital status have an undeniable impact on living with overweight or obesity in adulthood, regardless of gender. (…) Our results show that the dissemination of health knowledge and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle throughout life could reduce the worrying phenomenon of the increase in the obesity rate.inform the Polish authors in an annexed note.
The study nevertheless has numerous limitations. On the one hand, it was carried out in the Polish social context, effectively excluding all the national health dynamics that can be experienced in other countries. On the other hand, the absence of evaluation of interdependent factors further weakens this scientific bulletin.
However, the researchers believe that their work could help health professionals to better identify people at risk, in order to implement targeted prevention campaigns aimed at improving knowledge of public health and lifestyle.
