Study finds similarities between spouses in incidence of certain diseases

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A couple’s health is surprisingly closely linked, according to a recent cohort study that looked at Dutch and Japanese marriages.

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

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

The researchers looked at 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, alcohol consumption, weight, abdominal circumference and body mass index. When the researchers delved into the data, they determined that the couples had corresponding blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. In addition, related incidents of hypertension, diabetes and metabolic syndrome have also been found.

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

So, the next time you take an exam, why not bring your partner? Better yet, challenge them to walk to the clinic.

Source:

Journal reference:

Nakaya, N., et al. (2021) Spousal similarities in cardiometabolic risk factors: a cross-sectional comparison between Dutch and Japanese data from two large biobank studies. Atherosclerosis. doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2021.08.037.

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