Married couples' risk of same disease: cross sectional study.
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.
Hippisley-Cox
Julia
J
Division of General Practice, School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD. julia.hippisley-cox@nottingham.ac.uk
Coupland
Carol
C
Pringle
Mike
M
Crown
Nicola
N
Hammersley
Vicky
V
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