Socioeconomic aspects of spousal concordance for hypertension, obesity, and smoking in a community of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to evaluate the environmental role in the distribution of hypertension, obesity, and smoking and spousal concordance for the presence/absence of these 3 cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The households were randomly selected. Odds ratios were estimated to measure spousal concordance, across socioeconomic levels.. RESULTS: Overall a significant aggregation of all 3 risk factors was present. The crude odds ratio for hypertension was 1.78 (95%CI=1.02-3.08); for obesity, it was 1.80 (95%CI=1.09-2.96); and for smoking, it was 3.40 (95% CI=2.07-5.61). The spousal concordance for hypertension decreased significantly (p<0.001) from the lower to the higher educational level. In the case of obesity and smoking, the opposite was observed, although p-values for the linear trend were 0.10 and 0.08, respectively. CONCLUSION: In lower socioeconomic levels, couples are more concordant for hypertension and discordant for smoking. For hypertension and smoking, education seems to be a discriminant stronger than income, but for obesity the 2 socioeconomic indicators seem to represent different aspects of the environmental determinants of risk factor distribution.