老年婚姻中，健康容易會有互相影響的現象，但配偶健康開始變差時，另一半的健康問題還未被廣泛研究，且較少人運用預測罹病指標－生物指標探索配偶健康與生物指標之關係。另外，性別框架可能讓男女性在面對另一半健康問題時會有不同的表現。於此，本研究旨在透過受訪者的生物指標變化，瞭解配偶健康變差時就已經造成受訪者的健康問題，且不同性別及社經地位在面對配偶健康變化時，能否有不同的健康結果。
　　研究使用台灣中老年社會環境與生物指標資料庫2000年及2006的資料，包含年齡層在54-90歲有配偶之受訪者，使用11種單一生物指標以及三種綜合性指標(負荷指標、心血管疾病指標以及代謝症候群指標)，分析相較於配偶健康很好者，配偶健康一直很差、變好或變差之受訪者六年生物指標變化是否會有不同，並檢視性別是否會影響以上之關係。
　　研究結果顯示，受訪者配偶健康變好時，DHEA-S表現較佳。此外，男女性在面對配偶健康變差時，其生物指標皆會受影響。男性受訪者若其配偶健康持續很差，其總膽固醇及糖化血色素會往負向發展，若配偶健康變好，則負荷指標會下降；女性受訪者若其配偶健康變差，負荷指標、心血管疾病指標及代謝症候群指標在六年內會增加。代表當女性其配偶健康持續不佳時，其會罹患壓力、心血管及代謝症候群相關疾病。
以上結果顯示人們的健康隱憂在配偶感受另一半健康狀況時已經存在，且男女性在感受另一半健康變差時，其健康皆會受影響，只是女性比男性更容易有壓力問題而使健康變差。故在關注老年婚姻中的健康時，除了注重雙方的健康預防，更要重視女性的健康管理，用以預防女性成為真正家庭照顧者後健康衰退問題。

People may become weak when their spouses got sick. However, the impact of spouse’s health status on personal health has not been widely examined by investigating on biomarkers profiles longitudinally. We evaluated the associations between the health status of the participant’s spouse and participant’s biomarkers progression in six years. We used the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS), a nationally representative survey in Taiwan conducted in 2000 and 2006. We identified 483 participants who lived with their spouse, and had ability to care themselves. Self-reported spouse’s health, 11 pre-clinical and clinical biomarkers, including cardiovascular biomarkers, metabolic syndrome and allostatic load were measured. Logistic and multiple regression were used to identify risk factors of negative biomarker progression in six years among adults whose spouse’s health stay poor, became worse, became better, and stay well. After adjusting for the comorbidity, age and education, we found that if the health status of the spouse of a male participant become better, the male participant would decrease the risk of a worsening allostatic load profile (β_(male,AL)＝-0.80, P<0.05). In female participants, if the health status of their spouse become worse or stay poor, women would increase the risk of worsening HbA1c (OR=8.93, P<0.05), allostatic load (β_(female,AL)＝0.60, P<0.05）, cardiovascular profile (β_(female,CVD)＝0.80, P<0.01）and Metabolic syndrome (β_(female,Meta)＝0.43, P<0.05). These findings showed that impact of spouse’s health status on individual health may be more evident in women than in men, and that health concordance does not limit to focus on the post-chronic disease effect.

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