Married couples’ at risk of same disease

Researchers from the University of Nottingham set out to determine whether people whose marital partners suffered with a certain condition such as depression, high blood pressure or asthma were at increased risk of suffering from the same disease.

Over 8,000 married couples aged between 30 and 74 years of age took part in the study. After adjustments were made for age, obesity and smoking status in both partners it was found that the partners of people with asthma, depression and peptic ulcer disease were 70% more likely to suffer from the disease themselves. People with partners suffering from other conditions such as high blood pressure and hyperlipidaemia (excess cholesterol in the blood) were also more likely to suffer from the same conditions as their spouse.

The link is most likely to be caused by the environment within which the couple live, with shared environmental factors putting cohabiting partners at risk of developing the same diseases. The finding for asthma may be due to shared diet or shared exposure to allergens, whilst findings for hypertension and hyperlipidaemia suggest that diet and the pattern of physical exercise shared by couples has an important role in the disease’s cause. Another possible explanation for the findings is that couples may share similar attitudes towards healthcare and seeking health advice.

The researchers claim their findings could have implications for screening and other interventions. Interventions targeted at couples may prove more effective and

Media Contact

Steve Harman EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.bmj.com/

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors