Cancer & Divorce

The three to five fold higher mortality rate of divorced and never-married men and women provides a possible explanation for this "inexplicible" three fold increase in the RATE of cancer deaths in this century.  Had the divorce rate remained at its rate at the beginning of the twentieth century, it is almost certain that the rate of cancer deaths would have also remained at its 1900 rate.

The cancer fatality rate of married, never divorced men and women of 68 per 100,000 population is almost identical to the average rate for the whole population in 1900, when the divorce rate was almost non-existent by comparison.  The entire three fold increase in the cancer rate can be attributed to the higher cancer mortality rate of divorced and never-married men and women, who are two to six times more likely to die from a variety of causes than those who are married.  They are also three times more likely to commit suicide, twice as likely to be injured, nine times more likely to die of tuberculosis, four times more likely to die of diabetes, twice as likely to suffer mental illness, six to ten times more likely to be patients in psychiatric facilities, and four times more likely to be assaulted.

Had the cancer mortality rate remained constant at its 1900 level [read: had the divorce rate not increased 34 fold] , fifteen million fewer Americans would have died this century. 

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