Marital history and mortality in Norway

Svenn-Erik Mamelund, University of Oslo

This paper uses event history techniques and unique Norwegian register data to estimate effects of both current marital status and marital history on all-cause mortality of men and women 1971-2002 controlling for age, parenthood and education. The longitudinal and individual-level data covers the whole population, while most other studies with similar data have analyzed very small sample sizes. The following questions are addressed: Q1. How high is mortality among the remarried compared to those in first marriage? How does the difference depend on whether the first marriage was dissolved by death or divorce? Q2. Does the number of years as single/unmarried influence mortality among those in a second marriage? Q3. What are the effects of time since remarriage, i.e. does it matter whether the period as single/unmarried was a few years earlier or many years earlier (given its length)? For all questions, interaction with SES will be examined.