夫婦の加齢に伴う主観的健康レベルの変動とその関連性

抄録

The effect of married life on the health of the spouse was studied utilizing the Todai Health Index (THI) questionnaire, on 550 couples residing in an administrative district of Maebashi city, Gunma prefecture. The age of the wife of couples was 25 to 74 years, and the response rate of the complete survey was 75%. For 130 items relating to somatic symptoms and psychological complaints, 14 scales were derived as follows; SUSY: subjective symptoms, RESP: respiratory organs, EYSK: eye and skin, MOUT: mouth and anus, DIGE: digestive organ, IMPU: impulsiveness, LISC: lying scale, MENT: mental instability, DEPR: depression, AGGR: aggressiveness, NERV: nervousness, LIFE: irregularity of life, PSD: tendency for psychosomatic disease, and NEURO: tendency forneurosis. The 550 couples were divided into three groups by age of wife: young, middle aged (fifties), and old (65 years old or more). Scale scores of SUSY, IMPU, LISC, MENT, DEPR, AGGR, LIFE, PSD, and NEURO had significant correlations between husband and wife of the younger group. For middle aged couples, husband-wife correlations were found for SUSY, EYSK, MOUT, DIGE, IMPU, MENT, DEPR, LIFE, PSD, and NEURO; and for old couples SUSY, DIGE, and DEPR. Since little correlation was observed between scale scores of randomly matched men and women pairs, married life appears to demonstrate certain health interactions on spouses, which differ by age, being mainly psychological effects in the younger aged couples, psychosomatic in middle aged, and weak physical in the older aged group.