Is marriage still advantageous to women's health? A trend study on marriage and women's health in Korea from 1998-2010.

It is well known that married people have better physical and mental health than their non-married counterparts. But Korean demographic trends in women’s marriage are additional evidence that might address that single life of women is becoming less disadvantaged. The proportion of the population aged 29~34 and never-married has dramatically increased for women, and most of never-married women become better educated and make progress achieving socioeconomic independence (Statistics Korea, 1975~2010 Census). With higher rate of women’s non-marriage, the norm of 'proper age' at marriage and the meaning of never-married has dramatically changed, and even social stigma used to be attached to single women aged over the 'proper age' has notably diminished (Yoon, 1994; Kim, 2005). These changes suggest that non-married women in Korea now becoming more and more selective, which may affect the health of this population as compared to those married counterparts.Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate not only the relationship between marital status and the health status, but also the health differentials in women by marital status and employment status to assess the meaning of the changes among Korean women.