to women who had a registration for alcohol use disorder prior to marriage; the effect on future risk for alcohol use disorder in their husbands was modestly weaker than that seen for our broader definition of any lifetime disorder (hazard ratio=2.13, 95% CI=1.73–2.63). These results provide insight into the nature of the protective effect of marriage on risk for alcohol use disorder. If social role expectations were the critical component of marriage that reduced such risk, then marriage to an alcohol-abusing spouse should remain protective. That it is not in our data suggests that direct spousal interaction is more critical. This would be consistent with the position articulated by Umberson that “marriage may be beneficial to health because many spouses monitor and attempt to control their spouse’s health behaviors” (24, p. 907).
