Are partner's features important to understand health at older ages? The Spanish case

Abstract

Objective: To analyse health differences among partnered individuals in Spain aged 65-81 considering their combined (education of both partners and age gap) and household (economic capacity of the household) characteristics.

Method: A cross-sectional study of the 2015 Spanish sample of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey (EU-SILC) on partnered individuals aged 65-81 years (N=1787). Using logistic regression models separately for women and men we obtained odds and predicted probabilities of having less than good health (95% confidence intervals) according to combined information from both partners on education and age, the household's economic capacity and partner's health status.

Results: Probabilities of not having good health are significantly less among lower educated women whose partners are more highly educated (compared to both partners being lower educated) and among women whose partner is younger or has good health status. The latter also applies to men. Living in a household without economic difficulties also favours health (both sexes).

Conclusions: For both sexes a partner's health status is the variable that shows the largest effect on elderly partnered Spanish people's health but women's health appears to be more sensitive to their partner's educational attainment and the household's economic situation.

Keywords: Diferencias por sexo; EU-SILC; Educación; Education; Elderly; España; Estatus socioeconómico; Pareja; Personas mayores; Salud autopercibida; Self-reported health; Sex differences; Socio-economic status; Spain; Spouse/partner.