Gender Specificity of Spousal Concordance in the Development of Chronic Disease Among Middle-Aged and Older Chinese Couples: A Prospective Dyadic Analysis
Abstract Background This study aimed to explore the gender specificity of spousal concordance in the development of chronic diseases among middle-aged and older Chinese couples. Methods Data of 3420 couples (husbands: mean age, 57.5 years, SD = 8.5; wives: mean age, 55.6 years, SD = 8.0) were obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the incidence of chronic disease development over 4 years, conditional on the spousal baseline chronic disease status; and stepwise adjusting for the couples’ sociodemographic characteristics (i.e. age, education, retirement status and household income), and their individual lifestyle (i.e. smoking, drinking, exercise, social participation and (pre-)obesity) all measured at baseline. Results The incidence of chronic diseases after 4 years of follow-up was 34.5% in the husbands (727/2110) and 37.2% in the wives (882/2371). Taking the couples’ baseline sociodemographic and lifestyle covariates into account, husbands whose wife had a chronic disease at baseline showed an increased risk of developing a chronic disease over 4 years (ORadjusted=1.37, 95% CI:1.14,1.63), but this risk was not statistically-significant for wives (ORadjusted=1.16, 95%CI:0.97,1.40). Conclusions Our study identified gender specificity of spousal concordance in the development of chronic diseases among middle-aged and older- Chinese couples. This finding may contribute to the design of couple-based intervention for disease prevention and management for community-dwelling older adults.