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Evidence suggests that disability negatively affects people’s propensity to find a partner. Persons with disabilities that eventually find a partner do so later in life compared to the average population. There is a lack of studies on the differences in partnership opportunities for persons with disabilities compared to those without disabilities in Sweden. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of disability on partnership formation and to assess whether partnership formation varies as a function of individual demographic and socio-economic factors. We use nationwide data available in the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in Social and Medical Sciences (Umeå SIMSAM Lab). We follow persons born from 1973 to 1977 when they were from 16 to 37 years of age and analyze their data using logistic regression. Our findings indicate that regardless of whether a person started to receive a disability pension at an early age or later, it was associated with lower odds for partnership formation. For persons who started receiving disability pension from 16 to 20 years of age, chances for partnership formation reduced with increase in age of partnership. Individuals that started to receive disability pension later were more likely to form partnership prior to receiving disability pension. Partnership formation was less likely among persons born outside Sweden, in persons with mothers born outside Sweden, in individuals born by unmarried mothers and in persons, whose mothers had a high level of education. Partnership was high among women and among persons who had many maternal siblings. In conclusion, receiving disability pension was associated with reduced chances for partnership formation. Receiving disability pension might imply financial constraints that negatively influence partnership formation supporting Oppenheimer’s theory on the economic cost of marriage and the uncertainty hypothesis. MAW Experiences of Disabilities in Life and Online: Life Course Perspectives on Disabled People from Past Society to Present

BACKGROUND: Studies from across the world show that disability limits people’s health and social wellbeing in present-day populations. This disadvantage can lead to premature death, but there is dearth knowledge about the relationship between disability and mortality and changes over time. OBJECTIVES: Unique access to longitudinal micro data on comprehensive Swedish populations enabled us to examine how disability affects premature death in men and women from the 1800s until 2010. METHODS: Cox proportional regressions were used to estimate mortality hazards by disability status, gender and socio-economic indicators in three study populations from the 1800s, 1900s and 2000s. We followed all adults having disability from age 25 to compare their premature death risks (< age 43) relative to non-disabled groups. RESULTS: Irrespective of gender and century studied, the adjusted hazard ratios show that adults with disabilities had a significantly higher premature death risk relative to adults without disabilities, and it increased over time. In the 1800s, disability about doubled this risk (HR: 2.31, CI: 1.65–3.22) and it tripled from 1900–1959 (HR 3.01, CI 2.60– 3.48). At the turn of the 21th century, the mortality risk was almost ten-folded (HR 9.90, CI 8.03–10.5). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first comprehensive estimates on how disability increased mortality in Swedish populations from the 1800s until the 2000s. Across three centuries, disability was associated with a profoundly higher relative death risk in adults aged 25–42. This risk grew when the general survival in Sweden improved and it was the highest in the 1990–2010 period. Fundamental societal changes and extensive welfare provisions promoting equality in gender, health and social wellbeing of all citizens have not come to include younger generations with disabilities.