Marital Satisfaction and Frailty in Later Life: Asymmetric, Gendered, and Distributional Associations

NaKyung Nam, Hyunseo Rim, Taehoon Kim, Jinho Kim, Department of Health Policy and Management, Korea University, Republic of Korea, Interdisciplinary Program in Precision Public Health, Korea University, Republic of Korea, Department of Healthcare Policy Research, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Republic of Korea, Department of Economics, Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Journal of Applied Gerontology

Published online on June 26, 2026

Abstract

Journal of Applied Gerontology, Ahead of Print.
BackgroundPrior studies on marital satisfaction and health rarely consider whether improvements and declines have asymmetric effects. This study examined asymmetric associations between changes in marital satisfaction and frailty among older adults....