Socioeconomic aspects of spousal concordance for hypertension, obesity, and smoking in a community of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aims to evaluate the environmental role in the distribution of hypertension, obesity, and smoking and spousal concordance for the presence/absence of these 3 cardiovascular risk factors.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted in a community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The households were randomly selected. Odds ratios were estimated to measure spousal concordance, across socioeconomic levels.

RESULTS

Overall a significant aggregation of all 3 risk factors was present. The crude odds ratio for hypertension was 1.78 (95%CI=1.02-3.08); for obesity, it was 1.80 (95%CI=1.09-2.96); and for smoking, it was 3.40 (95% CI=2.07-5.61). The spousal concordance for hypertension decreased significantly (p<0.001) from the lower to the higher educational level. In the case of obesity and smoking, the opposite was observed, although p-values for the linear trend were 0.10 and 0.08, respectively.

CONCLUSION

In lower socioeconomic levels, couples are more concordant for hypertension and discordant for smoking. For hypertension and smoking, education seems to be a discriminant stronger than income, but for obesity the 2 socioeconomic indicators seem to represent different aspects of the environmental determinants of risk factor distribution.