Need a Healthy Push? Get Your Partner Involved

Amy Taylor January 20, 2015

Establishing healthy habits is easier if your partner is involved. Whether its quitting smoking, losing weight or eating healthy – sharing your health goals with your partner has far more positive results that doing it alone, according to a new study.

The research involved 3,700 married or cohabiting couples aged 50 and older. Investigators from University College London found that men and women were three times or more likely to achieve their resolution when their partner joined in the challenge.

The researchers selected men and women who were in a cohabiting relationship and who had unhealthy behaviours - either being a smoker, being overweight or doing too little exercise, at the start of the study. They tracked the behaviours of these individuals and their partners over four years, noting if any of them quit smoking, lost weight or became more active.

They found that when one half of the couple changed to a healthier lifestyle, the other person was more likely to make a similar lifestyle change.

Their findings further suggest that seeing an unhealthy partner make a change provided the biggest impetus for an individual to do the same, but living with someone already healthier than themselves also appeared to act as an encouragement. For example, a smoker was twice as likely to quit if their partner was a non-smoker but 10 times more likely to quit if their partner smoked but decided to quit too.

Study Implications

"This is important because it shows that if you can target couples or encourage people to involve their partners they may be more likely to succeed. Having the support of someone close seems to help." says Dr Sarah Jackson, one of the researchers.

Dr Mike Knapton, from the British Heart Foundation which part-funded Dr Jackson’s work, said: "This is an interesting study and reinforces the notion that your relationships play a key role in your health."

Meanwhile, Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK, said getting support could help people take up good habits. "For example, if you want to lose weight and have a friend or colleague who’s trying to do the same thing, you could encourage each other by joining up for a run or a swim at lunchtime or after work. And local support such as stop smoking services are very effective at helping people to quit.