WASHINGTON: Having a wife who is the main breadwinner is bad for a husband's health, as scientists have found that being a 'kept man' increases the risk of heart disease, strokes and type 2 diabetes.
Most men still think they should be the primary breadwinner, and being superseded by a spouse seems to strike a heavy blow to men's health, said Cary Cooper, Professor at the Rutgers University in the US.
Researchers believe that men suffer psychologically from being toppled from their position as the main provider and this affects their physical health.
The team studied nearly 2,000 couples over 30 years, monitoring changes in earnings and status.They found much higher rates of stress-related illness as well as heart problems and diabetes in men financially
overtaken by their wives, 'The Telegraph' reported.
"We found that violating cultural expectations, such as the masculinity ideal of male breadwinning, is associated with older men's poorer health," researchers wrote in the study published in the Journal of Ageing and Health."The fact is most men still think they should be the primary breadwinner," said Cooper.
"When they no longer play that role, their health suffers psychologically and that in turns damages their physical health," he said.