In a new study, researchers found people who need to look after their ill spouse may have higher risks of heart disease and high blood pressure due to the stress.
The finding shows that it is important for these people to take care of their health.
The research was conducted by researchers from Ohio State University and Penn State University.
In the study, the team evaluated this stress in daily life situations. They measured spousal heart health changes in response to patient pain.
For four days, people with arthritis and their spouses wore heart monitors while audio-recordings captured the couples’ in-home interactions.
The researchers then linked the cardio and audio data to the patient’s pain expression.
They found that, contrary to prediction, spouse heart health changes in response to patient pain expression were not consistent with the kind of stress reactivity previously found.
Their future work includes a longitudinal study with a larger sample of couples to find out how the patterns may play out over time.
The findings show the value of continuous in-home assessment for examining psychophysiological mechanisms in daily life.
It is possible to develop a new intervention based on moment-to-moment interactions and physiological responses that occur spontaneously in couples’ private lives.
One author of the study is Stephanie Wilson, a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.
The study is published in the journal Families, Systems, & Health.
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