I REMEMBER Rod Stewart once saying that long-term relationships are "impossible" and that marriage vows should be rewritten every year, "like a dog licence".

He may have changed his mind about that, however - after two failed marriages he seems to be doing okay with Penny Lancaster who he began dating in 2000 and married seven years later. And if he still has doubts, he may like to cast his eyes over the results of a new survey, which concludes that being married is good for your health - especially if you are a man.

The research, by the Institute of Education at University College London, supports a 2011 study that found the health of single men is likely to be worse because they do not have a partner to impress.

My husband certainly tries his hardest to impress me. He knows how much I love finding grubby jeans and boxer shorts strewn all over the bedroom and strives to please me with his toilet habits, which I won’t go into here.

He clearly knows how much I relish his shouting at me for just about everything I do, turning his nose up at food I have prepared and talking about the day he suffered the “misfortune” of meeting me. Oh yes, I’m very impressed.

Of course - and I’m for a fair and balanced report - I do plenty to annoy him and after more than 20 years living in the same house as me, he would argue vigorously against the idea that marriage is good for your health. So would 42 per cent of married couples, who, it is estimated, are destined to embark upon the extremely stressful process of divorce. Studies have found that divorce has an extremely detrimental effect upon health.

Marriage has to be worked at. As any couple - whether married or cohabiting - will tell you, it isn’t easy to accept and tolerate each other’s habits and accommodate each other’s needs for years on end, while at the same trying to do what you did before you tied the knot: enjoy each other’s company and have a nice time together.

Being single can, says the research, knock years off your life. I would almost certainly suffer more ills were I single. At the end of each day I like to be able to talk through my worries with another person. Research has shown this to be one of the benefits of marriage - but this surely depends upon whether the person on the receiving end is happy about it.

I wouldn’t say that my husband - who unlike me keeps all his thoughts and woes bottled up - much enjoys his role as my sounding board. In fact, he hates it. He doesn’t give good feedback. My litany of worries make his blood pressure rocket, his temples throb and his eyes roll around in his head.

He would, I am certain, thrive on his own. In a wife-free, argument-free, do-as-you-like world, he’d probably live to be 100.