[Concordance of risk factors for cerebro-cardiovascular diseases among spouses]

The present study was carried out to clarify the concordance or similarity of risk factors among 298 spouse pairs in a random sample who lived in Mizobe town of Kagoshima Prefecture. A sample of 298 spouse pairs was surveyed by using the house-to-house interviewing method and was classified into three groups by the marriage duration. The following results were obtained. 1) Statistically significant partial correlation coefficients were demonstrated among the spouses for blood pressure in the present study. However, they were smaller than among spouses in remote islands, this fact suggested that there was no higher spouse concordance in this surveyed area than in remote island areas, and also that there might be a difference in the shared environment of spouse pairs and the genetic effect on blood pressure between the former area and the latter. 2) In regard to the intake of salt in miso soup and the ratio of sodium to potassium (Na/K), an increasing gradient of partial correlation coefficients for the risk factors among the spouses was observed with increasing marriage duration, suggesting that the intake might be caused by the shared environment on the basis of a similar dietary pattern for the spouse pairs.