Trajectories of obesity by spousal diabetes status in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
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AIMS: To examine whether the development of obesity with age was different for individuals with and without a spouse with diabetes.
METHODS: We analysed data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing [n= 7123, median (interquartile range) age 59 (53-67) years, 51% men], which included four clinical examination waves between 1998 and 2012. The main exposure was having a spouse with diabetes. Outcomes of interest were BMI and waist circumference. We fitted quadratic age-related trajectories using mixed-effect models stratified by sex and adjusted for education, smoking and the corresponding interaction terms between age and spousal diabetes status.
RESULTS: The baseline spousal diabetes prevalence was 4.4%. Men with a wife with diabetes experienced a steeper increase in BMI (1.6 kg/m2 ) between ages 50 to 65 years than men with a wife without diabetes (0.9 kg/m2 ). Women with a husband with diabetes had a similarly shaped BMI trajectory to women with a husband without diabetes, but their average BMI levels were higher between ages 55 and 65 years. Waist circumference trajectories showed a similar shape by spousal diabetes status for men and women, although individuals with a spouse with diabetes had higher waist circumference values throughout follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS: We found a positive association between spousal diabetes status and obesity development, which differed by sex among middle-aged individuals. Evidence from couple-based interventions is needed to test whether the latter could improve the current individual-focused public health strategies for obesity prevention.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Diabetic Medicine |
Volume | 36 |
Issue number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 105-109 |
Number of pages | 5 |
ISSN | 0742-3071 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Bibliographical note
© 2018 Diabetes UK.
- Aged, Aging, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/epidemiology, England/epidemiology, Female, Health Promotion, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity/complications, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Spouses/statistics & numerical data, Waist Circumference
Research areas
ID: 313824300