The association between an individual’s development of non-communicable diseases and their spouse’s development of the same disease: the Longitudinal Survey of Middle-aged and Elderly Persons

TL;DR

This study finds that spouses of people with certain chronic diseases are more likely to develop the same conditions, suggesting shared risk factors or behaviors.

Contribution

The study provides new evidence of spousal associations in the development of non-communicable diseases using a large, longitudinal Japanese cohort.

Findings

Spouses of individuals with diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or CHD had higher odds of developing the same condition within three years.

No significant associations were found for stroke or cancer in the same timeframe.

The findings suggest shared lifestyle or environmental factors may contribute to disease development in couples.

Abstract

Studies have shown that married couples often share similar lifestyles, as well as lifestyle-associated conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. This study aims to prospectively investigate the association between an individual’s development of a non-communicable disease and the subsequent development of the same condition in their spouse.

This population-based cohort study utilized 12 waves of annual prospective surveys from 2005 onwards in Japan, with a discrete-time design. A total of 9,417 middle-aged couples (18,834 participants; discrete-time observations = 118,876) were included. Each participant whose spouse had developed one of six conditions was propensity score-matched with five controls whose spouses had not been diagnosed with the condition: diabetes [n = 1374 vs n = 6870], hypertension [n = 2657 vs n = 13285], hypercholesterolemia [n = 3321 vs n = 16605], stroke [n = 567 vs n = 2835], coronary heart disease (CHD) [n = 1093 vs n = 5465] or cancer [n = 923 vs n = 4615]. Using conditional logistic regression, we assessed participants’ development of the same condition within three years following their spouse’s diagnosis.

Participants whose spouses had developed diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or CHD were more likely to develop the same condition within three years. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were: 1.96 (1.53–2.50), 1.20 (1.06–1.36), 1.63 (1.47–1.81) and 1.43 (1.05–1.95), respectively. No significant associations were observed in stroke [1.69 (0.80–3.58)] or cancer [1.08 (0.75–1.54)].

Spouses of individuals recently diagnosed with certain metabolic conditions are at a higher risk of developing those conditions themselves. These findings may provide valuable guidance for targeting and personalizing chronic disease screening and prevention efforts.

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1265/ehpm.24-00294.

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