Single fathers have a higher risk of dying prematurely than single mothers—or even partnered parents, a study says.
The study, published in the Lancet Public Health journal, tracked more than 40,000 people in Canada for 11 years.
Specific cause of death was difficult to identify, but single fathers were found more likely to lead unhealthier lifestyles, which may explain the increased risk.
Single-parent families are becoming increasingly common around the world due to growing rates of divorce, separations, and couples having children outside of marriage.
But previous research on single parents have been focused on single mother, and no study to date has compared single fathers and mothers.
There is only one similar study from Sweden, which compared single and partnered fathers only, and found that single fathers had a 30% greater risk of mortality than partnered fathers.
“Our research highlights that single fathers have higher mortality, and demonstrates a need for public health policies to help identify and support these men,” says lead author Dr Maria Chiu, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and University of Toronto, Canada.
“While our study does not identify the exact cause of this, we did find that single fathers also tend to have unhealthier lifestyles, which could be an important area to address to improve health in this high-risk group.”
The study included 871 single fathers, 4590 single mothers, 16341 partnered fathers, and 18688 partnered mothers.
Single parents included people who were living at home with one or more biological or adopted children under the age of 25, and who were divorced, separated, widowed, single, never married, and not living with a partner.
The participants completed questionnaires to give details of their lifestyle and sociodemographic status, including their fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and binge drinking.
This was linked to their administrative health records to identify medical conditions, how often they used health services, whether they died, and cause of death.
After a median of 11 years follow-up, 693 people had died. Single fathers were more likely to die over this period, nearly six in 1000 person years, compared to partnered fathers averaging two in 1,000 person years. The rate for single mothers was similar 1.7 deaths per 1,000 person years. Partnered mothers were least likely to die over the follow-up period (1.2 deaths per 1000 person years, 228/18688 died).
While the leading cause of death for single fathers remained unclear (deaths were most likely classified as “other causes”), single fathers were more likely to lead unhealthy lifestyles.
For example, they ate fewer fruit and vegetables, and were more likely to binge drink than single mothers and partnered parents.
The authors note that social differences could also play a role in the increased risk for single fathers, potentially leading to increased stress and fewer coping mechanisms. Single fathers were more likely to be separated, divorced, or widowed than single mothers.
