Martial happiness can be a double edged sword, either reinforcing healthy or unhealthy behaviors that influences biological aging. A new University of Alabama at Birmingham study found that happy marriages may be associated with slower biological aging, but only when couples also maintain healthy habits such as regular physical activity, quality sleep and nutritious diets. Researchers found that marital happiness alone was not sufficient to promote healthy aging.
According to the study, marital happiness in a relationship can be viewed as a double-edged sword. In one way, it can be a virtuous cycle, where love reinforces healthy habits such as exercising regularly, eating a nutritious diet and sleeping well. However, it can also be a vicious cycle, where love reinforces unhealthy habits such as eating a poor diet, sitting for long periods on the couch and sleeping poorly.
Stephanie Wilson, Ph.D., development-health psychologist and assistant professor at the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychology, and her team recruited 107 middle-aged and older married or cohabiting couples between the ages of 40 and 87.
On two occasions, two years apart, they completed very in-depth assessments of their relationship, including mental health, diet and sleep. This included providing blood samples as well as engaging in a range of emotional conversations.
“The overarching goal of the study was to understand whether the quality of the relationship foreshadowed changes in biological aging over the two-year period,” said Wilson, lead author of the study. “We know that relationship quality has important impacts on lifespan and health span, in which biological aging could play a central role.”
Previous research has shown that happily married couples live longer and healthier lives, but a happy marriage alone is not enough to promote healthy aging; it also depends on their shared health habits.
Wilson says this study finds that, contrary to the high-level patterns in prior research and traditional wisdom, a happy marriage can have positive effects for healthy aging when paired with healthy behaviors and negative effects when paired with unhealthy behaviors.
“A couple can enjoy a happy relationship regardless of the state of their health. This can be especially true for younger couples and newlyweds,” Wilson said. “A happy marriage consists of treating each other well, working through disagreements constructively and feeling satisfied in the relationship.”
Key Findings:
• Higher marital quality was associated with lower p16INK4a expression, a marker of cellular aging.
• Healthy behaviors strengthened the positive relationship between marital happiness and biological aging.
• Happy relationships paired with unhealthy habits may contribute to poorer aging outcomes.
• Sleep, diet and physical activity appear to be important mechanisms linking relationships and health.
• Results were based on 107 married or cohabiting couples ages 40-87.
Do sleep, diet and exercise affect aging?
The study was informed by symptom-system fit theory, which suggests that behaviors that strengthen a relationship are not always good for physical health. Couples may become closer through shared routines, whether those routines are healthy or unhealthy.
“Unhealthy, indulgent routines can become stickier if done while bonding with a partner,” Wilson said. “Binge-watching a show together while sharing ice cream or drinks can feel like a release and easily can assume a regular, recurring role in a couple’s routine.”
Why do couples influence each other’s health?
Wilson and her team evaluated relationship quality through participant surveys and observations of how couples interacted while discussing challenges and positive life experiences. Researchers also measured biological aging using three established biomarkers: epigenetic aging clocks, p16INK4a expression and telomere length.
The study found that happier marriages were linked to lower p16INK4a expression, suggesting slower cellular aging. The association was strongest when couples engaged in healthy behaviors such as getting adequate sleep, eating well and staying physically active.
“A happy marriage can be insufficient for better biological aging, and it can also serve a maladaptive role when paired with unhealthy routines,” Wilson said.
But what if one person in the relationship is healthy and the other is not? Wilson says that scenario will likely result in a couple’s taking on caregiver/care recipient roles.
Caregiving between couples can have both positive and negative influences on relationships. It can bring gratitude, meaning and psychological growth; but it can also place considerable stress and strain on the relationship, such that marital quality can suffer with major health disruptions and chronic diseases.
“While helping others can be good for our health and well-being, exposure to a loved one’s distress triggers physiological patterns that can lead to poorer health in the long run,” Wilson said.
For couples to support healthy aging together, Wilson recommends couples invest in both their relationship and their lifestyles, including sleep, diet and physical activity.
The couples studied were predominately White, healthy and highly educated. Researchers studied the aging process excluding individuals with most types of cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease, substance abuse and many other serious chronic illnesses.
Because of this limited sample, Wilson says it would be ideal to recruit a larger, more representative group.
Wilson’s team, the Study of Health, Aging and Relationships lab, conducts studies to understand in detail how exchanges between loved ones trigger changes in the body and affect well-being in daily life, and to capture how these everyday experiences foreshadow long-term changes in biology and well-being as we age.