MUSCULOSKELETAL
MATTERS
Bulletin 10
In sickness and in health: shared risk factors
for musculoskeletal consultations in couples
Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are the second most common condition seen in primary care
Evidence exists of shared risk in couples
for a range of common conditions such as:
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Depression
• Asthma
Three proposed explanations for this are:
• Shared emotion
• Shared health beliefs and behaviours
• Shared environment
We used recorded primary care consultations to
assess shared risk for MSK conditions in couples
over a 1 year period.
In this particular study over 27,000 patients
(13,500 couples) were included with a mean age
of 52 years. One member of each couple was
designated the “index patient” for this analysis.
Figure 1: Possible explanations of
shared risk in couples
Shared
health
behaviour
Shared
emotion
Shared
environment
• Read codes were used to identify
musculoskeletal consultations
• Shared emotion was defined as a consultation
for mood or anxiety problems by both
partners over the year period
• Health behaviour was defined as the number
of consultations over the year period, with
those in the top 20% of number of times
consulted classified as frequent consulters
• English Index of Multiple Deprivation
was used to give an indication of the
shared environment
ILLNESS
CONCORDANCE
IN
COUPLES
Results
• 8292 patients had consulted for a MSK
condition within the 1 year period
• Regression analysis showed a 22% increase
in the odds of a person consulting for a
MSK condition if their partner had also
consulted for MSK
These bulletins are designed to provide information for general practitioners, the primary care team, teachers, trainers and policy makers about musculoskeletal problems in practice.