Marriage, cohabitation, and men's use of preventive health care services.

Previous research has demonstrated that married men are more likely than not-married men to seek preventive health care services because their spouses encourage them to do so (1,2). It was not known, however, whether cohabiting partners of not-married men play a health-promoting role similar to that of spouses. With data from the 2011-2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), selected measures of preventive health care service use were compared for three groups of men aged 18-64: married men (defined as those living with a spouse), cohabiting men (defined as those living with a partner who is not a spouse), and other not-married men. The consistency of observed differences by age and health insurance coverage status was also investigated. All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.