What is the impact of one’s chronic illness on his or her spouse’s future chronic illness: a community-based prospective cohort study

Table 2 Longitudinal effects of the index participant cumulative illness burden at baseline and its change during follow-up on that of the index participants and their spouses at the 8-year follow-up assessment

	CIRS at the 8-year follow-up assessment
	Index^a		Spouse^b
	Estimate (SE)	p	Estimate (SE)	p
All index participants
Baseline index CIRS	0.841 (0.023)	< 0.001	0.154 (0.039)	< 0.001
Change in index CIRS	0.783 (0.025)	< 0.001	0.126 (0.041)	0.002
Index participants with low CIB^c
Baseline index CIRS	0.916 (0.048)	< 0.001	0.102 (0.080)	0.200
Change in index CIRS	0.789 (0.030)	< 0.001	0.091 (0.049)	0.062
Index participants with high CIB^d
Baseline index CIRS	0.759 (0.056)	< 0.001	0.293 (0.093)	0.002
Change in index CIRS	0.768 (0.044)	< 0.001	0.218 (0.076)	0.005

CIB cumulative illness burden, CIRS Cumulative Illness Rating Scale, SE standard error
^aMultiple linear regression analyses adjusting for age, sex, years of education, exercise and Geriatric Depression Scale score of the index participants at the 8-year follow-up assessment. Estimates are unstandardized
^bMultiple linear regression analyses adjusting for age, sex, years of education, exercise, heavy alcohol use, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index score, and Geriatric Depression Scale score of the spouse participants at the 8-year follow-up assessment. Estimates are unstandardized
^cBaseline index CIRS score of below six points
^dBaseline index CIRS score of six points or higher

ISSN: 1741-7015