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.