Many studies have documented a longevity advantage for married Persons relative to their
unmarried counterparts in all age groups. However, these studies have failed to determine whether the
advantage experienced by married elderly Persons arises mostly from selection and causal processes which
operated at younger ages. This paper employs data from the Longitudinal Study of Aging (19841990)
to explore whether marital status continues to exert any influence on health and mortality at the older
ages. In the presence of an extensive set of controls for health status at the baseline survey, a series of
logistic models are used to determine: (1) the magnitude of marital status effects on disability and on
mortality, among older males and older females; and (2) the extent to which the social environment and
economic status of the elderly can account for the existing disability and mortality differences by marital
status.