We don’t just share the good things as a couple… Health problems too, according to an American study published on December 6.
Are we more likely to suffer from high blood pressure if our spouse also suffers from it ? A priori no since we are different human beings who do not have no relation. Yet this is the strange observation reported by researchers in the journalAmerican Heart Association. “We wanted to know if many married couples who often have the same interests, the same living environment, the same lifestyle habits and the same health outcomes could also share high blood pressure” explained Jithin Sam Varghese, research assistant professor at Emory University (United States) and co-author of the study.
Concordant hypertension in 1 in 2 couples
The researchers analyzed the blood pressure of 3,989 American couples, 1,086 English couples, 6,514 Chinese couples and 22,389 Indian couples aged 45 or over. “We were surprised to find that among many elderly couples, both husband and wife suffered from high blood pressure” commented Professor Chihua Li, researcher at the University of Michigan (United States), another author of the study. Their results:
► There is a high prevalence ofconcordant hypertension ranging from 20% to more than 40% among heterosexual couples in the four countries studied.
► In England, 47% of couples studied jointly suffer from hypertension, almost one in two couples. They are 38% in the United States, 21% in China and 20% in India.
► Compared to wives married to non-hypertensive husbands, wives married to husbands with hypertension were 9% more likely to have hypertension in the United States and England; 19% in India and 26% in China.
Even in treatments, the two influence each other…
The association of high blood pressure in couples was thus more impactful for women in China and India only in the United States and the United Kingdom. “One of the explanations could be cultural. In China and India, there is a strong belief in staying together as a family, so that couples can have a greater influence on each other’s health” remarked, Peiyi Lu, another scientist who participated in the study. The authors even observed that improving lifestyle (doing more physical activity, eating healthier, reducing stress) was more difficult to achieve if the spouse does not also comply. In view of these findings, they believe that “THE couple-centered interventions can be an effective strategy to prevent and manage hypertension.