A new study conducted by Pennsylvania State and the University of British Columbia found a strong relationship between depressive symptoms and functional limitations experienced by spouses. When one partner experienced a decline the other was likely to follow.
The study, published in the current issue of the American Psychological Association’s journal Health Psychology, studied more than 1,700 older couples over a 15-year period. Researchers found that spouses’ depressive symptoms intensified and subsided in tandem, with functional limitations coinciding with these depressive symptoms in both spouses.
Researcher Prof. Christiane Hoppmann of University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology hypothesizes about the reason for this relationship. “When people are depressed, they tend to want to stay at home – but that causes a spouse to stay home more too. That’s a problem, because when older adults stop being active – going for walks, socializing, shopping – they risk losing that functional ability. It’s that old saying, ‘use it or lose it.’”
The couple’s health was even more closely tied if one was the caregiver for the other. Researchers say these findings drive home the importance of a holistic healthcare approach, monitoring the full range of effects an illness can have on a family. “This interdependence suggests that we cannot simply focus on individual patients,” says Hoppmann, “while disregarding the major impacts their illnesses can have on the people in their lives,”
