Abstract
We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health to examine union and parenthood differences across same and opposite-sex couples in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), C-reactive protein (CRP), and abdominal adiposity (waist circumference) among partnered (dating, cohabiting, married) young adults ages 25–33. Relative to women dating men, women cohabiting with women reported lower DBP and were less likely to have high CRP. Mothers reported lower SBP and DBP than non-mothers, but were more likely to have high waist circumference if they lived with a biological or step-child. Among men, nonresidential fathers reported higher DBP than nonfathers, and married men were more likely to have high waist circumference than men dating an opposite-sex partner. Same-sex cohabitation was neither a risk factor nor a health resource for men. Although the sample sizes for same-sex couples are quite small compared with those for opposite-sex couples, this study provides initial insight that occupying a sexual minority status while partnered is associated with some health benefits and few or no health risks relative to those who are dating an opposite sex partner.
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Acknowledgments
The first author acknowledges support from a University of Akron Faculty Research Grant. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.
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Adrianne Frech, Jamie L. Lynch and Peter Barr declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
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Frech, A., Lynch, J.L. & Barr, P. Health consequences of same and opposite-sex unions: partnership, parenthood, and cardiovascular risk among young adults. J Behav Med 39, 13–27 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-015-9673-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-015-9673-y