Partners in Health: Investigating Social Genetic Effects Among Married and Cohabiting Couples

Partners resemble each other in health behaviors and outcomes such as alcohol use, smoking, physical activity, and obesity. While this is consistent with social contagion theory suggesting partner influence, it is notoriously difficult to establish causality because of assortative mating and context...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBehavior genetics Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 348 - 358
Main Authors Otten, Kasper, Mandemakers, Jornt J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.07.2023
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Aging
Alcohol use
Assortative mating
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Body mass index
Causality
Clinical Psychology
Cohabitation
Contagion
Drinking behavior
Family Characteristics
Genetics
Genotypes
Health Behavior
Health Psychology
Health status
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Marriage
Mating
Obesity
Original Research
Partnerships
Physical activity
Psychology
Public Health
Retirement
Smoking
Social contagion
Spouses
Genetics
Social genetic effects
Partners
Health
Social contagion
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Summary:Partners resemble each other in health behaviors and outcomes such as alcohol use, smoking, physical activity, and obesity. While this is consistent with social contagion theory suggesting partner influence, it is notoriously difficult to establish causality because of assortative mating and contextual confounding. We offer a novel approach to studying social contagion in health in long-term partnerships by combining genetic data of both partners in married/cohabiting couples with longitudinal data on their health behaviors and outcomes. We examine the influence of the partner’s genetic predisposition for three health outcomes and behaviors (BMI, smoking, and drinking) among married/cohabiting couples. We use longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with data on health outcomes and genotypes for both partners. Results show that changes over time in BMI, smoking, and drinking depend on the partner’s genetic predispositions to these traits. These findings underline the importance of people’s social surroundings for their health and highlight the potential of targeting health interventions at couples.
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ISSN:0001-8244
1573-3297
DOI:10.1007/s10519-023-10147-w