title: Married couples' risk of same disease: cross sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether people whose marital partners have depression, diabetes, hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, hyperlipidaemia, peptic ulcer disease, or asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are at increased risk of the same disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  10 practices from the Trent Focus Collaborative Research Practice Network.
  
  
  METHODS
  8386 married couples (16 772 individuals) from a population of 29 014 participants aged 30-74 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Risk of disease in participants whose marital partner had that disease compared with those whose partner did not.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After both partners' age, smoking, and obesity and which general practice they attend were adjusted for, participants whose marital partner had asthma, depression, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, and peptic ulcer disease were at increased risk of having the same disease. The adjusted odds ratios were 1.69 (95% confidence interval 1.43 to 2.98) for asthma, 2.08 (1.71 to 2.54) for depression, 1.32 (1.04 to 1.67) for hypertension, 1.44 (1.19 to 1.75) for hyperlipidaemia, and 2.01 (1.48 to 2.73) for peptic ulcer disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Partners of people with specific diseases are at increased risk of the disease themselves-at least 70% increased risk for asthma, depression, and peptic ulcer disease. This implicates shared environmental causes in some diseases in addition to any genetic or distant exposure or shared behaviours with respect to seeking health care.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Practice, School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD. julia.hippisley-cox@nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hippisley-Cox
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coupland
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pringle
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Crown
authors.forename: Vicky
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hammersley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology; D004194:Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000209:etiology; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D018454:Spouses