Married couples share a lot of things, but cardiovascular diseases would certainly not be desirable for any couple. If your partner is on onesuffers from heart disease, you're probably also at high risk, a Chinese study showed.
Higher risk of cardiovascular disease in married couples than in singles
When living together, unhealthy habits are often shared, explained the head of the research. Each individual's risk of heart disease is linked to the health status and lifestyle of the husband or wife, said Chi Wang, a researcher at the Heart Health Research Center in Beijing. Wang and his colleagues suspect that the results from China also apply worldwide.
A USA expert agreed with this. Dr. Michael Goyfman, chief of clinical cardiology at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York City, said these results are not surprising. “We assume that couples share many environmental factors, such as where they live, what they eat, etc. If one smokes, the other may be exposed to secondhand smoke,” he said.
The team of Dr. Wang studied 5,000 heterosexual couples over the age of 45 from 7 Chinese regions from 2014 to 2016. They were asked about their health, lifestyle and risk factors for heart disease. The research found that people whose spouses had heart disease were twice as likely to also develop heart disease compared to people whose partners did not have heart disease. This connection was particularly strong among men. 28% of men whose wives had heart disease also had heart disease compared to 12.8% of men whose wives did not have heart disease. The risk of heart disease among women whose husbands had heart disease was 21% compared to 9% among women whose partners did not have heart disease. The important role of women in family nutrition may explain these results.
“In addition to lifestyle habits and socioeconomic environment, the stress of caring for a partner with heart disease could also contribute to a higher cardiovascular risk. While sharing unhealthy lifestyle habits could trigger heart disease among married couples, the opposite is also true. Couples should be motivated to do activities together, such as healthy eating and exercise,” says Goyfman.
