Wives and ex-wives: a new test for homogamy bias in the widowhood effect.
Wives and ex-wives: a new test for homogamy bias in the widowhood effect.
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DOI：
10.1353/dem.0.0029
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发表时间：
2008-11
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Christakis NA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Elwert F;Christakis NA
配偶死亡后死亡率增加（“丧偶效应”）可能是由于（1）因果关系，（2）配偶相似性（同性婚姻）的偏见，或（3）共同环境暴露的偏见。本文提出了新的测试偏见的丧偶效应，通过检查丈夫，妻子和前妻在纵向样本超过100万老年美国人。如果前妻的死亡对丈夫的死亡率没有因果关系，那么观察到的丈夫和前妻的死亡率之间的关联可能表明偏见，而前妻的死亡对丈夫的死亡率没有影响将降低同性恋偏见的可能性（以及一种类型的共享暴露偏见）。从三个实证检验的结果提供了有力的证据，目前的妻子的死亡对丈夫的死亡率的影响，并没有统计上显着的证据前妻的死亡对丈夫的死亡率的影响。这些结果加强了对丧偶效应的因果解释，表明丧偶效应并不是由于同性婚姻的偏见，以任何实质性的程度。
Increased mortality following the death of a spouse (the “widowhood effect”) may be due to (1) causation, (2) bias from spousal similarity (homogamy), or (3) bias from shared environmental exposures. This paper proposes new tests for bias in the widowhood effect by examining husbands, wives, and ex-wives in a longitudinal sample of over 1 million elderly Americans. If the death of an ex-wife has no causal effect on the mortality of her husband then an observed association between the mortality of husband and ex-wife may indicate bias, while the absence of an effect of ex-wife’s death on husband’s mortality would discount the possibility of homogamy bias (and also of one type of shared exposure bias). Results from three empirical tests provide strong evidence for an effect of current wife’s death on husband’s mortality, and no statistically significant evidence for an effect of ex-wife’s death on husband’s mortality. These results strengthen the causal interpretation of the widowhood effect by suggesting that the widowhood effect is not due to homogamy bias to any substantial degree.