Institute for Research on Socio-Economic Inequality (IRSEI), University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care. 2023 Jan;11(1). doi: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2022-003080.
The health benefits of marriage have been widely documented and, to a lesser extent, the effects of marital quality. Marital relationships may be particularly relevant to the health of older adults. This study explores the associations of marital status and marital quality with average glycemic levels in older adults using longitudinal data.
Our sample consisted of adults aged 50-89 years without previously diagnosed diabetes from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (n=3335). We used biomarker data from waves 2 (2004/2005), 4 (2008/2009) and 6 (2012/2013) to analyze changes in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels within individuals in relation to their marital indicators (marital status, social support from spouse, and social strain from spouse) over time using linear fixed effect models.
We found that being married was associated with lower HbA1c values (β: -0.21%; 95% CI -0.31% to -0.10%) among adults without pre-existing diabetes. Spousal support and spousal strain were generally not associated with HbA1c values.
It seems that marital relationships, regardless of the quality of the relationship, are associated with lower HbA1c values for male and female adults aged over 50 years.
婚姻对健康的益处已得到广泛证实，而婚姻质量的影响则在较小程度上得到了证实。婚姻关系可能与老年人的健康尤其相关。本研究使用纵向数据探讨了婚姻状况和婚姻质量与老年人平均血糖水平的关联。
我们的样本包括来自英国老龄化纵向研究（English Longitudinal Study of Ageing）的年龄在 50-89 岁之间、无先前诊断为糖尿病的成年人（n=3335）。我们使用来自第 2 波（2004/2005 年）、第 4 波（2008/2009 年）和第 6 波（2012/2013 年）的生物标志物数据，使用线性固定效应模型分析了个体内 HbA1c（糖化血红蛋白）水平的变化与他们的婚姻指标（婚姻状况、配偶的社会支持和配偶的社会压力）之间的关系，这些指标是随时间变化的。
我们发现，在没有糖尿病前期的成年人中，已婚与较低的 HbA1c 值相关（β：-0.21%；95%CI -0.31%至-0.10%）。配偶的支持和配偶的压力通常与 HbA1c 值无关。
似乎无论关系质量如何，婚姻关系都与 50 岁以上男性和女性成年人的 HbA1c 值较低有关。
