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Spouse correlations in cardiovascular risk factors and the effect of marriage duration
M W Knuiman1, M L Divitini, H C Bartholomew
1Department of Public Health, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia.
Insights
Spouses share similar cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Concordance may be due to choosing similar partners (assortative mating) rather than shared environments over time.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Health
- Human Genetics
- Population Health
Background:
- Cardiovascular risk factors are influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
- Understanding spousal concordance can elucidate the relative contributions of shared environments versus assortative mating.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate correlations in cardiovascular risk factors between spouses.
- To examine how these correlations change with marriage duration.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 2,836 spouse pairs in the Busselton Population Health Surveys (1966-1981).
- Analyzed age-adjusted correlations for systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, triceps fatfold, cholesterol, and forced expiratory volume (1 second).
Main Results:
- Significant positive correlations were observed for all investigated cardiovascular risk factors between spouses (p < 0.01).
- Systolic blood pressure correlations showed a significant decreasing trend with marriage duration (trend p < 0.01).
- Other factors showed non-significant trends, with most decreasing over time.
Conclusions:
- Spousal concordance exists for multiple cardiovascular risk factors.
- The observed patterns suggest assortative mating is a more probable explanation than shared environmental influences over time.
Abstract:
Spouse correlations in cardiovascular risk factors were investigated using data on 2,836 spouse pairs collected in the Busselton Population Health Surveys over the period 1966-1981. The risk factors considered were systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, triceps fatfold, cholesterol, and forced expiratory volume (1 second). Statistically significant positive correlations (p < 0.01) were found for all (age-adjusted) variables. There was a statistically significant decreasing trend in the correlations for systolic blood pressure with marriage duration (trend p < 0.01). Although no other variables showed statistically significant trends, the correlations for diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.29), body mass index (p = 0.14), and forced expiratory volume (p = 0.16) also decreased with marriage duration, and correlations for cholesterol (p = 0.61) and triceps fatfold (p = 0.99) increased with marriage duration. These results suggest that there is spousal concordance in cardiovascular risk factors. The lack of consistent increasing trends in the correlations with marriage duration suggests that assortative mating may be a more likely explanation than the sharing of a common environment.