title: Mental and physical health consequences of spousal health shocks among older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine how the experience of a negative health event (i.e., onset of heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, cancer, or stroke) of one spouse affects the mental and physical well-being of the other partner as measured by depressive symptoms and self-reported health.
  
  
  METHODS
  We employ latent growth curve analysis and examine adults 50+ using six waves of data (1998-2008) from the Health and Retirement Study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One spouse's health shock affects the health of the other partner. Results indicate that a spouse's onset of a severe health condition worsens the mental health of women and the self-reported health of men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings illustrate that the family context of spouses is important to consider when examining health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valle
authors.forename: Janet A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Weeks
authors.forename: Miles G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Isaac W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Eberstein
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: depression; gender differences; health shocks; self-reported health