Spouses really are together in sickness and in health suggests new study

A couple's health is surprisingly intertwined according to a recent cohort study that looked at Dutch and Japanese marriages.

The study discovered that spouses have a high degree of commonality in not only lifestyle habits, but body shape, blood pressure, and even incidence of some diseases.

When it comes to marriage, the adage "birds of a feather flock together" is relatively true. Previous studies have indicated that we gravitate towards people of similar social class, educational background, race, and weight. The scientific name for this is assertive mating, and it means that spouses are often genetically similar. This allows researchers to explore environmental factors in greater detail.

Researchers examined 5,391 pairs from Japan and 28,265 from the Netherlands, drawing on data from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project, and the Lifelines study in the Netherlands.

Couples from both countries shared similar lifestyle habits and physical traits such as smoking, drinking, weight, abdominal circumference, and body mass index. When the researchers dived further into the data, they determined that couples had corresponding blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides levels. Moreover, related incidents of hypertension, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome were also found.

Many of the correlations were between couples with low genetic similarity and high lifestyle similarity, suggesting the importance of healthy choices. The researchers encourage healthcare guidance for couples and a healthy dose of competition between partners that encourages each other to improve their health, especially against diseases shaped by lifestyle and environment.

So, the next time you go for a checkup, why not bring your partner? Better yet, challenge them to a walk to the clinic.

From Science Daily

Spouses shed more pounds together than alone

 Weight loss is most successful in heart attack survivors when partners join in the effort to diet, according to research presented today at ESC Congress 2020.

"Lifestyle improvement after a heart attack is a crucial part of preventing repeat events," said study author Ms. Lotte Verweij, a registered nurse and PhD student, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. "Our study shows that when spouses join the effort to change habits, patients have a better chance of becoming healthier -- particularly when it comes to losing weight."

The RESPONSE-2 trial previously found that heart attack survivors referred to programmes for weight reduction, physical activity, and smoking cessation were more likely to modify behaviours compared to those receiving usual care. In both groups, living with a partner was linked with greater success in shifting bad habits. The most notable improvements were in patients who took part in lifestyle programmes and lived with a partner.

This follow-up study investigated whether partner involvement in lifestyle programmes had an impact on behaviour change. "If partners contribute to adopting healthy habits, it could become an important recommendation to avoid recurrent heart attacks," explained Ms. Verweij.

A total of 824 patients were randomly assigned to the intervention group (lifestyle programmes on top of usual care) or control group (usual care alone).

This analysis focused on the 411 patients in the intervention group, who were referred to up to three lifestyle programmes for weight reduction, physical activity, and smoking cessation depending on their needs and preferences. Partners could attend for free and nurses encouraged them to participate. Partner participation was defined as attending at least once.

Nearly half (48%) of partners participated in the lifestyle interventions. Compared to those without a partner, patients with a participating partner were more than twice as likely (odds ratio 2.45) to improve in at least one of the three areas (weight loss, exercise, smoking cessation) within a year.

When the influence of partners was analysed on the three areas separately, patients with a participating partner were most successful in reducing weight compared to patients without a partner (odds ratio 2.71).

"Patients with partners who joined the weight loss programme lost more weight compared to patients with a partner who did not join the programme," said Ms. Verweij.

She continued: "Couples often have comparable lifestyles and changing habits is difficult when only one person is making the effort. Practical issues come into play, such as grocery shopping, but also psychological challenges, where a supportive partner may help maintain motivation."

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