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Healthy behaviors easier to accomplish with a partner

Both men and women are greatly influenced by their partner’s healthy behavior when making health behavior alterations, according to a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“We found that men and women are strongly influenced by their partner’s behavior in relation to making health behavior changes,” Sarah E. Jackson, PhD, of Health Behaviour Research Centre and Public Health, University College London, England, and colleagues wrote in the study.

Using prospective data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, researchers evaluated the unhealthy habits of married or cohabiting couples (n=3,722), aged 50 years and over, to examine the effect partners have on one another’s odds of positive health behavior changes over time. They evaluated unhealthy habits including smoking, physical inactivity and being overweight/obese. 

Overall, smokers with a nonsmoking partner were more likely to quit smoking (OR=2.06-3.84) just as inactive adults who had an active partner were more likely become physically active, according to data (OR=2.75-2.92). In either of these domains, an unhealthy adult with a healthy partner was more likely to affect positive changes to their health (smoking OR=11.23-11.82; physical activity OR=5.28-5.36). Moreover, overweight adults with partners who lost weight had a 3 times higher chance of also losing weight (OR=3.05-3.08). However, overweight adults whose partners had a normal BMI did not have an increased likelihood for losing weight. The presence of chronic health conditions did not affect these results.

An adult who became healthy rather than who was already consistently healthy had a greater influence on their partner’s ability to become healthy (OR=1.84-5.45), according to the research.

When one partner becomes healthy, it is easier for the other to become healthier because they have made the decision to do it together, the researchers wrote.

“Men and women who indicated readiness to change their behavior were less confident that they could change if their spouse was in a lower stage of readiness to change, suggesting that people feel more able to change their behavior if their partner is also motivated to change,” the researchers wrote.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.