I WAS saddened to read that Higher Folds has been found to be the divorce capital of England.

While perhaps many people think that divorce is a private matter, medical evidence shows that while marriage had a very beneficial effect on individual and society, divorce has many serious adverse effects, especially on children.

Overall, there has been a dramatic increase in family breakdown over the past 40 years: In 1961, 350,000 British people got married for the first time, 50,000 remarried, and 30,000 divorced. Forty years later, 180,000 married for the first time, 120,000 remarried, and 150,000 divorced.

There is a wealth of scientific evidence linking family breakdown with many adverse health outcomes for children, such as higher mortality, emotional problems, poor school performance and poverty.

Children from broken families are also more likely to become drug addicts, teenage parents and contract sexually transmitted diseases. They are more likely to engage in criminal activity and are over-represented in the prison population.

Most, if not all of today's social ills such as juvenile crime, teenage pregnancy, drug taking, behavioural problems in children and childhood poverty can be directly linked to family breakdown.

Conversely, marriage confers many health benefits including lower mortality, less depression and less alcohol abuse and increased life expectancy.

Being married gives a similar benefit in life expectancy as quitting smoking. Interestingly, cohabitation does not have the same protective benefit that marriage does.

Is it not time therefore that marriage is being strengthened?

The marriage-based family, after all is the basic building block of society.

If we do away with it, what are we going to replace it with?

Dr Hans-Christian Raabe

The Family Practice

Bengal Street

Leigh