Abstract
Physical activity and body mass index (BMI) are linked to the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Romantic partners influence each other’s health and the behavioral management of T2D often involves both partners. Therefore, this study examined dyadic associations between physical activity and BMI in couples in which one partner has T2D. Data came from the Lifelines cohort study. The actor–partner interdependence model was applied to cross-sectional data from 1133 couples in which only one partner had T2D. The physical activity of the person with diabetes was inversely associated with his/her partner’s BMI. However, partner physical activity was not associated with the BMI of the person with diabetes. These results suggest that people with diabetes may influence the BMI of their partners. Future research should consider how people with diabetes influence the health outcomes of their partners, which is an area that is often overlooked in the literature.
References
Acock, A. C. (2013). Discovering structural equation modeling using Stata: Revised edition. College Station: Stata Press.
Avery, L., Flynn, D., Van Wersch, A., Sniehotta, F. F., & Trenell, M. I. (2012). Changing physical activity behavior in type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of behavioral interventions. Diabetes Care,35, 2681–2689.
Beverly, E., Wray, L. A., & Miller, C. K. (2008). Practice implications of what couples tell us about type 2 diabetes management. Diabetes Spectrum,21, 39–45.
Bize, R., & Plotnikoff, R. C. (2009). The relationship between a short measure of health status and physical activity in a workplace population. Psychology, Health & Medicine,14, 53–61.
Boutcher, S., & Dunn, S. L. (2009). Factors that may impede the weight loss response to exercise-based interventions. Obesity Reviews,10, 671–680.
Donnelly, J. E., Blair, S. N., Jakicic, J. M., Manore, M. M., Rankin, J. W., & Smith, B. K. (2009). Appropriate physical activity intervention strategies for weight loss and prevention of weight regain for adults. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise,41, 459–471.
Dowda, M., Ainsworth, B. E., Addy, C. L., Saunders, R., & Riner, W. (2003). Correlates of physical activity among US young adults, 18 to 30 years of age, from NHANES III. Annals of Behavioral Medicine,26, 15–23.
Franks, M. M., Hemphill, R. C., Seidel, A. J., Stephens, M. A. P., Rook, K. S., & Salem, J. K. (2012). Setbacks in diet adherence and emotional distress: A study of older patients with type 2 diabetes and their spouses. Aging & Mental Health,16, 902–910.
Franks, M. M., Lucas, T., Stephens, M. A. P., Rook, K. S., & Gonzalez, R. (2010). Diabetes distress and depressive symptoms: A dyadic investigation of older patients and their spouses. Family Relations,59, 599–610.
Health Council of the Netherlands. (2017). Physical activity guidelines 2017. Retrieved from https://www.gezondheidsraad.nl/sites/default/files/grpublication/physical_activity_guidelines_2017_0.pdf. Accessed 20 Nov 2017.
Howland, M., Farrell, A. K., Simpson, J. A., Rothman, A. J., Burns, R. J., Fillo, J., et al. (2016). Relational effects on physical activity: A dyadic approach to the theory of planned behavior. Health Psychology,35, 733.
Hu, G., Lindström, J., Valle, T. T., Eriksson, J. G., Jousilahti, P., Silventoinen, K., et al. (2004). Physical activity, body mass index, and risk of type 2 diabetes in patients with normal or impaired glucose regulation. Archives of Internal Medicine,164, 892–896.
Johnson, M. D., Anderson, J. R., Walker, A., Wilcox, A., Lewis, V. L., & Robbins, D. C. (2013). Common dyadic coping is indirectly related to dietary and exercise adherence via patient and partner diabetes efficacy. Journal of Family Psychology,27, 722.
Kenny, D. A., Kashy, D. A., & Cook, W. L. (2006). Dyadic analysis. New York: Guilford Press.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., & Newton, T. L. (2001). Marriage and health: His and hers. Psychological Bulletin,127, 472–503.
Leong, A., Rahme, E., & Dasgupta, K. (2014). Spousal diabetes as a diabetes risk factor: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Medicine,12, 12.
Lewis, M. A., McBride, C. M., Pollak, K. I., Puleo, E., Butterfield, R. M., & Emmons, K. M. (2006). Understanding health behavior change among couples: An interdependence and communal coping approach. Social Science and Medicine,62, 1369–1380.
Lippke, S., Nigg, C. R., & Maddock, J. E. (2012). Health-promoting and health-risk behaviors: Theory-driven analyses of multiple health behavior change in three international samples. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine,19, 1–13.
Lister, Z., Fox, C., & Wilson, C. M. (2013). Couples and diabetes: A 30-year narrative review of dyadic relational research. Contemporary Family Therapy,35, 613–638.
Luyster, F. S., & Dunbar-Jacob, J. (2011). Sleep quality and quality of life in adults with type 2 diabetes. The Diabetes Educator,37, 347–355.
Meyler, D., Stimpson, J. P., & Peek, M. K. (2007). Health concordance within couples: A systematic review. Social Science and Medicine,64, 2297–2310.
Petersen, L., Schnohr, P., & Sørensen, T. I. A. (2004). Longitudinal study of the long-term relation between physical activity and obesity in adults. International Journal of Obesity,28, 105–112.
Preiss, D., Thomas, L. E., Wojdyla, D. M., Haffner, S. M., Gill, J. M., Yates, T., et al. (2015). Prospective relationships between body weight and physical activity: An observational analysis from the NAVIGATOR study. British Medical Journal Open,5, e007901.
Reed, R. G., Butler, E. A., & Kenny, D. A. (2013). Dyadic models for the study of health. Social and Personality Psychology Compass,7, 228–245.
Scholtens, S., Smidt, N., Swertz, M. A., Bakker, S. J., Dotinga, A., Vonk, J. M., et al. (2015). Cohort Profile: LifeLines, a three-generation cohort study and biobank. International Journal of Epidemiology,44, 1172–1180.
Simpson, J. A., Farrell, A. K., Oriña, M. M., & Rothman, A. J. (2015). Power and social influence in relationships. APA Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations,3, 393–420.
Sluik, D., Buijsse, B., Muckelbauer, R., Kaaks, R., Teucher, B., Johnsen, N. F., et al. (2012). Physical activity and mortality in individuals with diabetes mellitus: A prospective study and meta-analysis. Archives of Internal Medicine,172, 1285–1295.
Spiegel, K., Tasali, E., Leproult, R., & Van Cauter, E. (2009). Effects of poor and short sleep on glucose metabolism and obesity risk. Nature Reviews Endocrinology,5, 253–261.
Stephens, M. A. P., Rook, K. S., Franks, M. M., Khan, C., & Iida, M. (2010). Spouses use of social control to improve diabetic patients’ dietary adherence. Families, Systems, & Health,28, 199.
Valrie, C. R., Bond, K., Lutes, L. D., Carraway, M., & Collier, D. N. (2015). Relationship of sleep quality, baseline weight status, and weight-loss responsiveness in obese adolescents in an immersion treatment program. Sleep Medicine,16, 432–434.
Wendel-Vos, G. W., Schuit, A. J., Saris, W. H., & Kromhout, D. (2003). Reproducibility and relative validity of the short questionnaire to assess health-enhancing physical activity. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology,56, 1163–1169.
Wild, S., Roglic, G., Green, A., Sicree, R., & King, H. (2004). Global prevalence of diabetes: Estimates for the year 2000 and projections for 2030. Diabetes Care,27, 1047–1053.
Wing, R. R., Lang, W., Wadden, T. A., Safford, M., Knowler, W. C., Bertoni, A. G., et al. (2011). Benefits of modest weight loss in improving cardiovascular risk factors in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care,34, 148.
World Health Organization. (2016). Diabetes country profiles 2016. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/diabetes/country-profiles/en/. Accessed 20 Nov 2017.
Acknowledgements
The Lifelines Biobank initiative has been made possible by funds from FES (Fonds Economische Structuurversterking), SNN (Samenwerkingsverband Noord Nederland) and REP (Ruimtelijk Economisch Programma). The authors wish to acknowledge the services of the Lifelines cohort study, the contributing research centres delivering data to Lifelines, and all the study participants.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Drs. Burns, Fillo, Deschenes and Schmitz each declare that he/she has no conflict of interest.
Human and animal rights and Informed consent
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Burns, R.J., Fillo, J., Deschênes, S.S. et al. Dyadic associations between physical activity and body mass index in couples in which one partner has diabetes: results from the Lifelines cohort study. J Behav Med 43, 143–149 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-019-00055-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-019-00055-y