Middle-aged people are more likely to suffer premature death if they do not have a significant other, a new study suggests.

According to US scientists, in modern society, the survival of middle-aged people is expected, therefore understanding who is at risk of not reaching an older age is important.

They looked at the link between marriage and the risk of premature death in over 4,800 people who were born in the 1940s.

They found that having a spouse or permanent partner when middle-aged reduced the risk of a premature death.

In fact, middle-aged people who had never married were at least twice as likely to die prematurely compared to people who had been in a stable marriage throughout their adult life.

Being single increased the risk of a premature death in middle age. This included people who had lost their partners and had not gone on to establish a relationship with someone else.

The results stood even when other factors, such as personality and risky health behaviours, were taken into account.

The scientists said that the findings indicate that these relationships ‘appear to provide different levels of emotional and functional social support, which has been shown to be related to mortality'.

They concluded that ‘social ties during midlife are important to help us understand premature mortality'.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Annals of Behavioral Medicine.