Purpose. This study explored whether the economic benefits of marriage mediate the association between marriage and health and if that relationship is conditional on the level of shared economic resources. Methods. Pooled, cross-sectional data from NHANES 2001–2006 were analyzed using multivariate zero-inflated negative binomial regression for the number of days of inactivity due to poor physical or mental health. Results. Persons that were divorced/separated reported the highest average number of days of inactivity (mean？=？2.5) within a 30 day period, and married persons reported the lowest number of days of inactivity (mean？=？1.4). Multivariate results indicated that widowed persons did not report significantly more days of inactivity than married persons. Income to poverty ratio reduced the size and eliminated statistical significance of the difference between divorced/separated and never married marital statuses compared to married persons. The interaction effect for marital status and income to poverty ratio was statistically significant suggesting that the relationship between marital status and inactivity is conditional on shared income. Conclusion. Marriage confers health protective benefits in part through pooled income relative to other marital statuses. 1. Introduction There is a growing interest in how the types and quality of social ties influence our mortality, morbidity, and health lifestyle [1–4]. One form of social relationships that has near unanimous support for being health enhancing is marriage [5–8]. One view of this relationship is that healthier persons are more likely to get married and stay married, which is referred to as the selection hypothesis [9, 10]. Another view, the causation hypothesis, argues that marriage confers numerous social and economic benefits that protect married persons from ill health over time [6]. The social benefits of marriage include social support during times of stress, which can protect health by reducing inflammation and increasing serotonin release to elevate moods, and encouragement to engage in healthy behaviors [3, 11–14]. Economic benefits of marriage include pooled assets, living in the same household, access to spousal health insurance, and shared household labor [9, 15, 16]. Some of these benefits can also be gained by cohabiting with a partner, which may partially explain the rise in cohabiting unions over the past few decades [16–18]. Although these economic benefits may enable married and cohabiting persons to invest in health promoting resources, there is still little research done on
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