Why the study?
Most evidence on spousal concordance of hypertension comes from Caucasoid couples in Western societies, whereas marriage, partner selection, and post-marital roles differ substantially in Indian society.
There is significant spousal concordance of hypertension in Indian couples that is not fully explained by shared environmental risk factors and weakens with age, suggesting a need for couple-based screening.
Spousal hypertension concordance in Indian couples may support joint screening; leaves open mechanisms and causal implications for practice.
BACKGROUND: Hypertension, a critical risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, is found to cluster between spouses due to within-couple aggregation of antecedent environmental risk factors, either through assortative mating or cohabitation. However, majority of the evidence of spousal concordance of hypertension is from Caucasoid couples from western societies, whereas marriage, partner selection, and post-marital roles of husband and wives are very different in Indian society. Therefore, we aimed to comprehensively examine the phenomenon of spousal concordance of hypertension in Indian couples. METHOD: Couples from Longitudinal Ageing Study in India Wave 1 (n = 10,994) and National Family Health Survey Round 5 (n = 52,026) represented 15 years + Indian spouses. Hypertension was defined when systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure was > 139 and > 89 mmHg respectively, and/or if the individual was previously diagnosed or on anti-hypertensive medication. Odds Ratios (OR) estimated the within-couple concordance of hypertension while adjusting for five environmental risk factors of hypertension: individual-level body mass index, education and caste, and household-level wealth and place of residence. RESULT: OR marginally attenuated from 1.84 (95% Confidence Interval: 1.77, 1.92) to 1.75 (1.68, 1.83) after adjustment, signifying negligible explanation by environmental risk factors, and plausibility of "novel" risk factors. Concordance continued to weaken with age (OR: 2.25 (2.02, 2.52) in < 30 versus 1.36 (1.20, 1.53) in ≥ 60 years). CONCLUSION: Our study underscores two critical knowledge gaps: first, the identity of "novel" risk factors of hypertension and second, the mechanism behind weakening of concordance with age. Future research should explore these novel risk factors rigorously and try to modify them. Also, primary healthcare policy of the country should focus on couples in addition to individuals for hypertension and cardiovascular disease screening and management.
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Nayak et al. (2023) studied this question.
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