Spousal concordance of ideal cardiovascular health metrics: findings from the 2014–2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

BACKGROUNDS: We aimed to investigate whether a spouse’s cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics status affects the other spouse’s ideal CVH using a Korea nationwide representative survey. METHODS: We used the health data of 6,030 married couples who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2014 to 2019. The CVH was defined using seven metrics: smoking status, blood pressure, body mass index, total cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, physical activity, and diet, following the American Heart Association guidelines and modifications for body mass index cutoffs and diet quality. The CVH score was calculated on a scale ranging from 0 to 7, with the ideal CVH defined as attaining ideal scores in at least five CVH metrics. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to assess whether husband’s ideal CVH was associated with his wife’s odds for having ideal CVH, and vice versa. RESULTS: The mean CVH scores were 3.2 and 4.0 for husband and wife, respectively. After fully adjusting for age and education of both partners and household income, husbands had 1.49 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27–1.69) higher odds of achieving ideal CVH if their wives had also achieved ideal CVH. Meanwhile, wives whose husbands achieved ideal CVH also had 1.46 times (95% CI, 1.27–1.69) higher odds of achieving ideal CVH. Nonsmoking (57.17%), ideal fasting blood glucose level (34.93%), and ideal diet intake (24.18%) were the most concordant CVH metrics among spouses. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found a significant spousal concordance of ideal CVH in Korean married couples. This finding supports the use of a couple-based interventional strategy targeted to promote CVH. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40885-022-00224-3.