Marriage may be a good idea for you if you suffer from diabetes.

The findings of a new study suggest that when it comes to Type 2 diabetes, patients who are married are less likely to be overweight than single patients. It also found that diabetic men who lived with their partners were at a lower risk of suffering from metabolic syndrome that increases their susceptibility to heart disease and stroke.

The preliminary research was presented Thursday at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Munich, Germany, by Japanese researchers from Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine and Chigasaki Municipal Hospital.

The researchers examined medical records of 270 type 2 diabetes patients from 2010 to 2016. Of these, there were 180 married patients — 109 men and 71 women — living with their spouses, and 90 single patients — 46 men and 44 women.

Those who were married registered a lower average body mass index (measurement of body fat based on height and weight) — 24.5 — than the single group — 26.5. The former group also had lower levels of HbA1c (a measurement of blood sugar control) with 7.3 percent compared to the single group’s 7 percent. The likelihood of metabolic syndrome was higher for the single people (68 percent) as opposed to the married people (54 percent).

The researchers also found that married people were 50 percent less likely to be overweight, HealthDay News reported. The conclusion was reached after compensating for factors like the ages and genders of the study’s subjects.

While there was no significant difference in the weight aspect for both genders, the study found that married men were at a 58 percent lower risk of metabolic syndrome than single men. For women, however, there was no evidence of any such linkage.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of adults in the United States between the ages of 18 and 79 with newly diagnosed diabetes tripled from 493,000 in 1980 to more than 1.4 million in 2014.

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