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Trajectories of obesity by spousal diabetes status in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
Author(s) -
SilvermanRetana O.,
Hulman A.,
Simmons R. K.,
Nielsen J.,
Witte D. R.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
diabetic medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.474
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1464-5491
pISSN - 0742-3071
DOI - 10.1111/dme.13811
Subject(s) - medicine , spouse , waist , diabetes mellitus , obesity , gerontology , longitudinal study , interquartile range , demography , psychological intervention , ageing , endocrinology , psychiatry , pathology , sociology , anthropology
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/m 2 ) between ages 50 to 65 years than men with a wife without diabetes (0.9 kg/m 2 ). 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.