--- title: Married People Are More Likely to Survive Cancer description: Married people may have a higher chance of surviving cancer—and not just because of the economic benefits, a new study shows. canonical: https://time.com/4288843/marriage-cancer-survival-support/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-11T16:33:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:28:43.579Z article:section: Health og:title: Married People Are More Likely to Survive Cancer Thanks to Emotional Support og:description: Economic advantages of marriage have little to do with survival chances og:url: https://time.com/4288843/marriage-cancer-survival-support/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Married People Are More Likely to Survive Cancer Thanks to Emotional Support twitter:description: Economic advantages of marriage have little to do with survival chances twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Married People Are More Likely to Survive Cancer Because They Have Emotional Support  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 11, 2016 4:33 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 11, 2016 4:33 PM UTC Married people [may have a higher chance of surviving cancer](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/social-support-of-marriage-may-improve-cancer-survival/?%5Fr=0)—and not just because of the economic benefits, a new study shows. Researchers have found that the social and emotional support couples get after tying the knot is a major part of why married cancer patients have a more favorable shot at survival than those who are unwedded. Scientists behind the study, [published Monday in _Cancer_](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291097-0142), looked at 783,167 cancer patients in California, including 386,607 who died. They studied health insurance data and neighborhood socioeconomic levels to assess economic resources, according to the New York _Times_. The risk of death among unmarried men was 27% higher, and among unmarried women 19% higher, than among the married, the newspaper said. “Across different racial and ethnic groups we were able to analyze whether economic resources played a role,” said Scarlett Lin Gomez, a research scientist and lead author of the study, according to the _Times_. “In fact, they play a very minimal role. It points more to social support as the defining factor.” \[[_NYT_](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/social-support-of-marriage-may-improve-cancer-survival/?%5Fr=0)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4288843/marriage-cancer-survival-support/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4288843/marriage-cancer-survival-support/"},"headline":"Married People Are More Likely to Survive Cancer Because They Have Emotional Support","datePublished":"2016-04-11T16:33:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:28:43.579Z","description":"Economic advantages of marriage have little to do with survival chances","url":"https://time.com/4288843/marriage-cancer-survival-support/","keywords":["Cancer"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cancer/","name":"Cancer"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4288843/marriage-cancer-survival-support/","name":"Married People Are More Likely to Survive Cancer Because They Have Emotional Support"}}]}] ```