Geschatte leestijd: 3 minutenA man with an overweight partner has a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Conversely, overweight men do not have this unhealthy influence on their female partners. This is according to recent research from Denmark.
Negative Influence of Overweight Partner
The title is not intended as clickbait, but otherwise it would be as long as necessary to clarify that it specifically concerns the risk of type 2 diabetes.
It is not very surprising that partners can influence each other’s lifestyle. After all, you are already partners in life and share a household, including a kitchen. However, the influence that overweight women have on their male partners appears to be significantly greater than vice versa. The chance of a man developing type 2 diabetes increases if he has a partner who is overweight. Conversely, this is not the case.
Researchers from Aarhus University conducted two different studies [1]. For the first study, they looked at the effect of a partner’s overweight on the risk of diabetes by following 3650 men and 3478 women. The data was obtained from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a representative sample of the British population. Participants were interviewed every 2.5 years between 1998 and 2015. The analysis was adjusted for other risk factors such as age, ethnicity, the individual’s degree of obesity, and socioeconomic status.
During the average follow-up of 11.5 years, 12.6 out of 1000 men developed diabetes per year, while for women, this was 8.6 out of 1000 per year.
The researchers found no link between an existing diabetes diagnosis in one partner and the risk of diabetes for the other partner. However, when they looked further, they found that men with an obese partner have a significantly higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes. The weight of the woman at the start of the study was a strong predictor of the risk of diabetes in the male partner. For every 5 points the woman increases on the BMI scale, the male partner’s risk of type 2 diabetes increases by 21%. The likelihood of obesity in men also increased, even after adjusting for the man’s own weight and BMI. Conversely, they did not find this association.
In a second study, they reversed the scenario and looked at the likelihood of overweight with or without a partner with type 2 diabetes. Here too, they found that the likelihood of overweight increases if the partner has type 2 diabetes. This applied to both the influence of the man and the woman.
Eve’s Influence
Medieval church leaders would have found this result fantastic. Another proof of the sinful and corruptible nature of women. In 2017, you can wonder what lessons and conclusions can be drawn from this.
You can, of course, look for an explanation for this one-sided, negative influence of the woman. Even if you start from a traditional picture of the woman managing the kitchen, you would expect both partners to experience the consequences. Sharing a poor lifestyle in general should have its effect on both partners. Depending on your bias in the battle of the sexes, you can spin it however you like. Women are stronger because they are immune to the man’s bad influence. They care more about their appearance and are less likely to let themselves go. On the other hand, you can defend the man by pointing out that he does not pass on his bad traits to the woman. “As long as you keep your beautiful figure, I can brag about you while I fill my beer belly at the bar with my friends.”
The husband puts the blame for his increasing bulk on the wife’s cooking but she, canny woman, doesn’t gain weight at the same rate.
She frets about a socially embarrassing increase in dress size and that does the trick. Dress size is not uppermost in a man’s mind.
Tam Fry, National Obesity Forum
So, men are just less vain.
Regardless of finger-pointing, according to the researchers, medical professionals should take into account the risk of diabetes in the male partner when treating women with obesity, but not vice versa.
And Nowadays?
It is important to note a major caveat. The study mainly included middle-aged couples.
So, we have no idea if this relationship also exists in younger couples in modern relationships.
References
- eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-09/d-sou090817.php
