Team up with your domestic partner for better health

If you would like to be healthier, for example, by quitting smoking or going on an exercise regimen, do it with your domestic partner for better results.

Researchers had known that couples tend to share unhealthy habits, but this is the first study which examines whether couples can  ditch their unhealthy habits together for a better outcome, said senior author Jane Wardle of University College London.

“Of course we weren’t studying ‘why,’ only ‘whether’, but I would speculate that social support and sharing the problem would be good,” Wardle said. “Maybe there might also be an element of competition.”

More than 3,500 married or cohabiting couples over age 50 in England first completed health behavior questionnaires around the year 2000 and have been followed up with subsequent questionnaires and nurse visits.

For smoking couples, only eight percent of men whose partners kept smoking were able to quit. But when partners also gave up smoking, 48 percent of men were successful in their own attempt. The numbers were similar for female smokers.

Almost 70 percent of men increased their physical activity levels when their partners joined them, compared to 26 percent of men whose partners did not.

For weight loss, 15 percent of women managed to lose at least 5 percent of their body weight while their partner did not lose weight, but 36 percent lost their weight if their partners did too.

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Category: Features, Wellness and Complementary Therapies