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Cancer and quality of life in spousal dyads: spillover in couples with and without cancer-related health problems

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Abstract

Purpose

Poor health of one spouse can adversely influence the partner’s health outcomes (“spillover”). This study aimed to estimate quality of life spillover among spouses and to determine how presence of cancer influenced these effects.

Methods

We examined data on husband–wife dyads with cancer-related health problems, medical events, or disabilities (n = 910) and matched comparison dyads from the 2004–2012 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey, a population-based survey of the USA. Mental and physical health-related quality of life and depressed mood were reported at two time points (T1 and T2, 11 months apart on average). Dyadic multilevel models evaluated the cross-lagged impact of HRQoL and depressed mood at T1 on spouses’ HRQoL at T2, controlling for sociodemographics and health conditions.

Results

Small but statistically significant spillover was observed for mental and physical HRQoL among couples with cancer. Spillover occurred from both the spouse to the survivor and from survivor to spouse. Depressed mood, in particular, showed stronger spillover effects from the spouse to the survivor than the inverse. Similar effects were not observed in dyads without cancer.

Conclusions

Screening for and treating poor HRQoL and depressed mood concurrently in both cancer survivors, and their spouses may positively influence HRQoL outcomes. Future research is needed to further elucidate these findings and determine whether a concurrent approach to psychosocial care in survivors and their spouses may improve long-term outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are federal employees and this work had no specific funding. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the National Cancer Institute.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of interest

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA

    Kristin Litzelman, Paige A. Green & K. Robin Yabroff

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  1. Kristin Litzelman
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  2. Paige A. Green
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  3. K. Robin Yabroff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristin Litzelman.

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Litzelman, K., Green, P.A. & Yabroff, K.R. Cancer and quality of life in spousal dyads: spillover in couples with and without cancer-related health problems. Support Care Cancer 24, 763–771 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-015-2840-4

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