Are gay relationships shorter

We studied overall mortality in a demographically defined, complete cohort of gay men and lesbians to address recent claims of markedly shorter life spans among homosexual persons. Likewise, despite recent calls for increased attention to the health needs of sexual minority groups, 45 no population-based study has provided data on the overall mortality among lesbians.

One major practical reason that mortality has not been studied in these groups, whose basic human rights remain controversial in many countries, is the difficulty identifying large and unbiased groups of gay men and lesbians. However, because of lower background mortality rates in the younger category, SMRs were markedly different 5.

Although further study is needed, the claims of drastically increased overall mortality in gay men and lesbians appear unjustified. Because of insufficient follow-up data, we excluded 31 persons who had emigrated from Denmark at the time of their marriage.

Expected numbers of deaths in the cohort denominators of the SMRs were estimated by adding the gender- age- and time period—specific contributions 1-year age and 5-year time period—specific stratifications of person-years of observation multiplied by corresponding gender- age- and time period—specific death rates in the general population.

EDRs are the observed minus the expected number of deaths per person-years.

We calculated standardized mortality ratios SMRs starting 1 year after the date of same-sex marriage for men and women in Denmark who married a same-sex partner between and For women, and for men marrying afterthe significant excess mortality was limited to the period 1 to 3 years after the marriage.

Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Despite recent marked reduction in mortality among gay men, Danish men and women in same-sex marriages still have mortality rates that exceed those of the general population.

During 60 person-years of observation starting 1 year after a same-sex marriage, deaths in men, in women occurred in the cohort, yielding crude mortality rates of In terms of excess deaths, persons in same-sex marriages experienced 5.

The excess death rate EDRdefined as the observed minus the expected number of deaths per person-years of observation, is useful when comparing groups with different baseline mortality rates. One-sided confidence interval given because there were no deaths during the 13 to 14 years after first same-sex marriage among women who married at or before age 35 years.

Furthermore, persons with less than 1 year of follow-up were excluded because we disregarded the first year after marriage from all mortality calculations to reduce the influence of deaths from severe diseases that were present at the time of marriage and that may have contributed to the decision to marry.

Official websites use.

Till Death Do Us :

Frisch originated and designed the study and drafted the article. These data suggest that both same-sex and heterosexual relationships tend to remain stable for approximately the same amount of time; while heterosexual couples tend to dissolve their relationships at a higher rate after a longer period of time, same-sex relationships tend to end at a higher rate after a shorter period of time.

The excess mortality is restricted to the first few years after a marriage, presumably reflecting preexisting illness at the time of marriage. The standardized mortality ratio SMRdefined as the ratio of observed to expected numbers of deaths, is a frequently used summary measure of relative mortality.

As Americans become more accepting of sexual minorities, differences between same-sex and different-sex relationships are smaller than ever. Inthe Danish parliament was the first in the world to pass a law allowing registered homosexual partnerships, i. The lack of clear gender difference in medians confirms earlier suggestions that factors reducing relationship-length may be inherent to same-sex attraction rather than dependent on gender or.

We utilized favorable opportunities for conducting nationwide epidemiologic studies in Denmark to identify a cohort of more than persons whose only eligibility criterion was that they had formalized their partnership in same-sex marriage.

Our goal was to provide a population-based estimate of the overall mortality in a well-defined, complete cohort of gay and lesbian persons without obvious health-related characteristics that would lead to biased mortality estimates. Thus, the study cohort consisted of persons men, women who were followed after 1 year of their first same-sex marriage until death, emigration, or end of follow-up July 15, We used measures of relative and excess mortality to compare overall mortality rates among persons in same-sex marriages with those of the general Danish population.

Further stressing the need for a thorough investigation, a recent Internet-based publication used flawed methodology to arrive at the conclusion that life expectancies for gay men and lesbians are, on average, shorter than those of heterosexual men and women by more than 20 years.