Woman's Education Affects Male Partner's Lifespan: Study

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Well-educated women and their male partners are more likely to live a long life than less-educated women and their men, according to a Swedish study of 1.5 million working people ages 30 to 59.

The study found that women with a university education were 53 percent less likely to die at an early age than those with only a school education. Men whose female partners had a university education were 25 percent less likely to die early than those who lived with a woman with a school education, BBC News reported.

"Women traditionally take more responsibility for the home than men do and, as a consequence, women's education might be more important for the family lifestyle -- for example in terms of food habits -- than men's education," said lead researcher Dr. Robert Erikson.

He and his colleagues found that men's income and social status affect their female partner's lifespan, BBC News reported.

The study appears in the journal Epidemiology and Community Health.