SPOUSE CORRELATIONS IN CARDIOVASCULAR RISK-FACTORS AND THE EFFECT OF MARRIAGE DURATION

Spouse correlations in cardiovascular risk factors were investigated u sing data on 2,836 spouse pairs collected in the Busselton Population Health Surveys over the period 1966-1981. The risk factors considered were systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass inde x, triceps fatfold, cholesterol, and forced expiratory volume(1 second ). Statistically significant positive correlations (p < 0.01) were fou nd for all (age-adjusted) variables. There was a statistically signifi cant decreasing trend in the correlations for systolic blood pressure with marriage duration (trend p < 0.01). Although no other variables s howed statistically significant trends, the correlations for diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.29), body mass index (p = 0.14), and forced exp iratory volume (p = 0.16) also decreased with marriage duration, and c orrelations for cholesterol (p = 0.61) and triceps fatfold (p = 0.99) increased with marriage duration. These results suggest that there is spousal concordance in cardiovascular risk factors. The lack of consis tent increasing trends in the correlations with marriage duration sugg ests that assortative mating may be a more likely explanation than the sharing of a common environment.