University of Colorado Denver, Department of Psychology, Campus Box 173, PO Box 173364, Denver, CO, 80217-3364, USA.
VA San Diego Healthcare System & University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, 9500 Gilman Dr.La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2023 Jun;327:115965. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115965. Epub 2023 May 13.
Couples-based interventions to facilitate health behavior change and improve disease outcomes are gaining attention from researchers. Dyadic research, however, poses unique methodological challenges that have raised questions about research samples and the generalizability of findings.
The current study examined whether couples in which both partners participated (i.e., complete couples) in a couples' health research study systematically differed from those in which only one partner participated (i.e., incomplete couples).
Between January 2014 and November 2015, an online survey was advertised on Facebook to people who were both engaged to be married and living in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area. When the first member of a couple completed the survey (initially recruited participant), they provided their partner's email address, which prompted the research staff to invite the second partner to complete the same online survey. Constructs assessed included demographics, health behaviors, general health status, and relationship quality. Participants answered questions about themself and their partner. Approximately one-third of the partners of initially recruited participants also participated. Data from initial participants in complete couples (N = 265) were compared to data from initial participants in incomplete couples (N = 509).
Chi-square tests and independent samples t-tests indicated participants in incomplete couples had significantly lower relationship quality, worse health behaviors, and poorer health status compared to those in complete couples. Reports on partner health behaviors also differed in the same direction between the two groups. Participants in complete couples were more likely to be White, less likely to have children, and had more education than in incomplete couples.
Findings suggest that studies requiring both members of a couple may recruit samples that are less diverse with fewer health concerns than research that only requires individual participation if their partner refused participation. Implications and recommendations for future couples-based health research are discussed.
以夫妻为基础的干预措施可以促进健康行为的改变并改善疾病结局，越来越受到研究人员的关注。然而，对偶研究提出了独特的方法学挑战，这些挑战引发了关于研究样本和研究结果普遍性的问题。
本研究旨在检验在夫妻健康研究中，夫妻双方都参与（即完整夫妻）的夫妻与仅一方参与（即不完整夫妻）的夫妻是否存在系统性差异。
2014 年 1 月至 2015 年 11 月，在 Facebook 上向丹佛（科罗拉多州大都市区）的订婚并居住在该地区的人发布了一项在线调查。当一对夫妻中的第一个成员完成调查（最初招募的参与者）时，他们提供了其伴侣的电子邮件地址，这促使研究人员邀请第二方完成相同的在线调查。评估的构念包括人口统计学特征、健康行为、一般健康状况和关系质量。参与者回答了关于他们自己和伴侣的问题。大约三分之一的最初招募参与者的伴侣也参与了研究。将完整夫妻中的最初参与者（N=265）的数据与不完整夫妻中的最初参与者（N=509）的数据进行比较。
卡方检验和独立样本 t 检验表明，与完整夫妻相比，不完整夫妻的参与者的关系质量较低，健康行为较差，健康状况较差。两组参与者在报告伴侣的健康行为时也存在相同的差异。完整夫妻的参与者更可能是白人，不太可能有孩子，且受教育程度更高。
研究结果表明，如果其伴侣拒绝参与，那么需要夫妻双方参与的研究可能会招募到多样性较低、健康问题较少的样本，而仅需要个人参与的研究则不然。文章还讨论了对未来基于夫妻的健康研究的影响和建议。
