If you want your spouse to exercise, quit smoking and stop drinking alcohol, you have to adopt a healthy lifestyle first -- this will inspire your partner to do the same.
A team of international researchers has carried out a study and found that spouses often mirror each other's health habits, the ScienceDaily reported.
"We found that when one spouse improves his or her health behaviour, the other spouse is likely to do so as well," lead researcher Prof Jody Sindelar of the Yale School of Public Health was quoted as saying.
The researchers came to the conclusion after analysing data from the Health and Retirement Study involving 6,072 individuals and their spouses.
The team found that the changes in spouses' health habits were most apparent in such behaviour as smoking and drinking, which is often spurred by outside cues, and in patient-directed preventive behavior, such as getting a flu shot.
According to their findings, smokers were more than five times more likely to quit smoking if their spouse quit, when controlling for other relevant factors.
Similarly, spouses were five times more likely to quit drinking alcohol if their partner didn't drink.
The changes were less apparent in clinician-directed preventive behavior, such as obtaining cholesterol screening.
"This was consistent across all the behaviours analysed and was similar among both males and females," Prof Sindelar was quoted as saying.
"The health habits and use of preventive services should be viewed in the context of a family. Attempts to change behaviour may be enhanced, or thwarted, by the behavior of family members, especially spouses. For this reason, intervention programmes should include tips about how to get the other spouse involved in exercise or help reduce tobacco cues," another researcher Tracy Falba of the Duke University's Center for Health Policy, Law and Management, was quoted as saying.
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