Spouse concordance for fasting plasma glucose in non-diabetics

Abstract

Spouse concordance for fasting plasma glucose was determined in 1710 currently married spouse pairs from a retired community in Southern California who had married durations of from 1 year to more than 40 years. A highly significant concordance was found in marriages of all durations, with the highest concordance in marriages of short duration. Concordance for fasting plasma glucose was not explained by concordance for education, obesity, cigarette smoking, ingestion of whole milk or eggs, the use of antihypertensive medications or a family history of heart disease. Nor was the observed spouse concordance due to selective mortality of discordant spouse pairs. Although there was significant seasonal variation in fasting plasma glucose levels, spouse concordance was not entirely a function of seasonality of sampling. The data suggest that concordance for other environmental attributes--possibly specific nutrients--is responsible for fasting plasma glucose concordance.