Staying single all your life may not be good for your health.

That's the conclusion of new research that shows that people who never marry face an even greater chance of dying early than people who have been divorced, separated or widowed. All of these groups had shorter survival prospects than people who were currently married.

The effect held true across all age groups, even younger ones, the researchers noted.

"This seems to happen all the way along," said lead researcher Robert Kaplan, professor of the department of health services at the University of California, School of Public Health.

His team published the findings in the September issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Previous research had found a connection between being married and a longer life expectancy and, more specifically, between being married and a lower incidence of heart disease. Marriage is considered a rough proxy for "social connectedness," which experts believe can help people live longer.

Most of these studies, however, haven't distinguished between people who are separated, divorced or widowed and those who have never been married.

"We're getting at never-married people," Kaplan said. "That hasn't been looked at as much."

The authors argued that widowed and divorced people are more likely to have children and are thus more likely to be socially connected. Never-married people would not have these benefits.

一辈子单身对于健康可能没什么好处。

这是一项最新研究得出的结论。研究表明，从未结过婚的人比那些离婚、分居或丧偶的人英年早逝的危险要高得多。而以上这些人群的寿命又都比已婚人士短。

研究人员指出，这个结论适合于各年龄段的人，年轻人也不例外。

加尼福尼亚大学公共卫生学院健康服务系的罗伯特·卡普兰教授是研究小组的组长，他说："这个道理在任何时候都适用。"

该小组的研究结果在《流行病学和社区健康》九月刊上发表。

此前的研究发现，结婚可以让人长寿，更确切的说，结婚可以降低患心脏病的危险。婚姻被认为是"社会关系"的一种简单形式，而专家们认为社会关系能使人的寿命延长。

然而，这些研究中的大部分没有将分居、离婚、丧偶的人和从未结过婚的人区分开来。

卡普兰说："我们主要针对的是从未结过婚的人。目前对这个人群的研究还不够。"

研究报告的作者们认为，丧偶和离婚的人有孩子的可能性较大，所以他们还是有一定的社会关系。而从未结过婚的人则没有这些好处。