Spouse involvement and diabetes management in later life couples

Amber J Seidel, Purdue University

Abstract

For many adults, including older adults, a marital partner is their central social relationship and this important tie can have health implications particularly within the chronic illness context. In addition, chronic illness care has shifted from long and frequent hospital stays to outpatient care for managing illness over an extended period of time. As the interactions within a marriage are posited to influence a patient's chronic illness management (see reviews Kiecolt-Glaser & Newton, 2001; Robles & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2003), the primary aim of this study is to determine the association between spouse involvement and patient chronic illness management and marital satisfaction. A second aim of this study is to explore the relational context as a potential moderator of the association of spouse involvement with chronic illness management and marital satisfaction. Findings suggest that supporting patients' healthy dietary habits may be particularly beneficial at reinforcing patients' current efforts to manage their diet. Whereas, pressuring patients to change their behavior may be met with unintended interference with adherence. Additionally, the different findings between spouse diet-related persuasion and pressure suggest that spouse control has multiple facets warranting further research to examine their effectiveness within an illness context. This study contributed to the examination of potential moderators between spouse involvement and patient outcomes suggesting that one size does not fit all. For couples where the spouse reports eating a healthful diet more often, patients may feel discouraged by their spouses' attempts to change their diet habits when spouses may not seem to be struggling in maintaining a healthy diet resulting in poorer patient dietary adherence.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Franks, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Gerontology|Aging|Individual & family studies

COinS