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

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.