Spouse concordance of plasma cholesterol and triglyceride

Spouse concordance for plasma cholesterol and triglyceride was studied in 1971 spouse pairs including 545 spouse pairs married 40 or more years. Both lipids showed modest but statistically significant age corrected Kendall Tau-B correlations; 0.046 (P = 0.005) for cholesterol and 0.070 (P = 0.0001) for triglycerides. Concordance was not explained by season of sampling or by selective mortality. Relative weight was positively correlated in spouse pairs and appeared to explain much of the observed correlations in cholesterol and triglycerides. Spouse pairs also showed positive correlations for cigarette smoking and egg and milk consumption, though these behavioral variables explained little of the concordance for cholesterol and triglycerides. Lipid concordance was highest in marriages of the shortest (1-9 yr) and longest (40 + yr) durations, as was relative weight concordance, suggesting an interaction between duration of marriage and environmental and/or selective factors affecting plasma lipids.