Partners tend to be either both healthy, or both sick, according to new research.

If you are married, how would you rate your own health relative to your partner's? It's a question that's not often considered, say researchers at Brigham Young University, but has enormous implications for health policy.

The Brigham team looked at the health of more than 4,700 couples over 50 who were taking part in the Health and Retirement Study. They found that health status tended to correlate between the partners. For instance, if a man in his early 50s had excellent health, he has a five per cent chance of having a wife in fair health and a two per cent chance of having one in poor health.

Yet if we look at men in poor health, they have a 24 per cent chance of having a spouse in fair health and a 13 per cent chance of her being in poor health. There are many reasons for this fascinating relationships. People tend to marry those of similar educational and economic status to themselves. And we already know that education and economic status are strong indicators of health. Couples often share the same environment and make similar health choices (chances are, for example, that they'll eat roughly the same diet). And if one partner falls ill, caring for them may well be a drain on the other's health. The researchers say the results of this study suggest that health policy should be made in the context of the family, rather than the individual.

Source

Social Science and Medicine September 2002