Gender Specificity of Spousal Concordance in the Development of Chronic Disease among Middle-Aged and Older Chinese Couples: A Prospective Dyadic Analysis

Jing Liao, Jing Zhang, Jinzhao Xie and Jing Gu
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Jing Liao: Department of Medical Statistics, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
Jing Zhang: Department of Medical Statistics, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
Jinzhao Xie: Department of Medical Statistics, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
Jing Gu: Department of Medical Statistics, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: This study aimed to explore the gender specificity of spousal concordance in the development of chronic diseases among middle-aged and older Chinese couples. Data of 3420 couples 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 BMI) all measured at baseline. The incidence of chronic diseases after 4 years of follow-up was 22.95% in the husbands (605/2636) and 24.71% in the wives (623/2521). Taking the couples’ baseline sociodemographic and lifestyle covariates into account, husbands whose wife had chronic diseases at baseline showed an increased risk of developing chronic diseases over 4 years (OR adjusted = 1.24, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.51), but this risk was not statistically-significant for wives (OR adjusted = 0.88, 95%CI: 0.71, 1.08). 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.

Keywords: gender specificity; couple; health concordance; chronic disease; dyadic data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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