The following is a round-up of news items compiled by the Hitched editors during the week of June 18, 2014.
Monogamy Is Natural
It’s often repeated that monogamy is not a natural act and that humans who participate in monogamy are the exception. Turns out that owl monkeys are also monogamous. Research biologist Dr. Maren Huck from the University of Derby, UK, spent more than a year in Argentina observing owl monkeys. These primates, Dr. Huck found, are inseparable when coupled. The male owl monkeys were also very involved in the upbringing of offspring, doing equal or more parental work than the females.
There are many examples of coupling and social monogamy in nature, but these monkeys are true monogamists. To measure the monogamy of the owl monkeys, Dr. Huck collected DNA samples from over 100 monkeys across 30 social groups. She then conducted maternity and paternity tests on 35 offspring and found that not a single monkey had parented an offspring outside of their relationship.
Married Men More Likely Than Cohabitants to Get Preventive Care
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has published the results from the National Health Interview Survey, 2011–2012, and found that married men aged 18–64 were more likely (76.3%) than non-married men (65.1%; which has been identified in previous studies) and cohabiting men (60.3%) to have had a health care visit in the past 12 months. This is the first time that cohabitation was measured in this capacity, and the results have shown it does not have the same effect on getting preventive health care as did marriage. When it came to those for whom blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes screenings were recommended, again married men were more likely than cohabiting men to have received these preventive services in the past 12 months. Even for the uninsured, married men (44.6%) were more likely than cohabiting men (42.4%) to have at least one health care visit in the previous 12 months.
According to the survey, it seems that cohabitation doesn’t fair better than other non-married, non-cohabiting men either. Cohabiting men were less likely than not-married men to have had a health care visit, cholesterol check, or diabetes screening.
Steve Cooper is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Hitched. You can follow him on Twitter at @hitchedmedia.
