Spouses really are together in sickness and in health suggests new study


Date:
September 27, 2021
Source:
Tohoku University
Summary:
Examining spouses from Japan and the Netherlands, a new study
suggests that couples have a high degree of commonality in body
shape, blood pressure, and even incidences of some diseases.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A couple's health is surprisingly intertwined according to a recent
cohort study that looked at Dutch and Japanese marriages.


==========================================================================
The study discovered that spouses have a high degree of commonality
in not only lifestyle habits, but body shape, blood pressure, and even incidence of some diseases.

When it comes to marriage, the adage "birds of a feather flock together"
is relatively true. Previous studies have indicated that we gravitate
towards people of similar social class, educational background, race, and weight. The scientific name for this is assertive mating, and it means
that spouses are often genetically similar. This allows researchers to
explore environmental factors in greater detail.

Researchers examined 5,391 pairs from Japan and 28,265 from the
Netherlands, drawing on data from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project,
and the Lifelines study in the Netherlands.

Couples from both countries shared similar lifestyle habits and physical
traits such as smoking, drinking, weight, abdominal circumference, and
body mass index. When the researchers dived further into the data, they determined that couples had corresponding blood pressure, cholesterol,
and triglycerides levels. Moreover, related incidents of hypertension, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome were also found.

Many of the correlations were between couples with low genetic similarity
and high lifestyle similarity, suggesting the importance of healthy
choices. The researchers encourage healthcare guidance for couples and a healthy dose of competition between partners that encourages each other
to improve their health, especially against diseases shaped by lifestyle
and environment.

So, the next time you go for a checkup, why not bring your partner? Better
yet, challenge them to a walk to the clinic.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Tohoku_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Naoki Nakaya, Tian Xie, Bart Scheerder, Naho Tsuchiya, Akira Narita,
Tomohiro Nakamura, Hirohito Metoki, Taku Obara, Mami Ishikuro,
Atsushi Hozawa, Harold Snieder, Shinichi Kuriyama. Spousal
similarities in cardiometabolic risk factors: A cross-sectional
comparison between Dutch and Japanese data from two large
biobank studies. Atherosclerosis, 2021; 334: 85 DOI:
10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2021.08.037 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210927102558.htm

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