Spillover effects of health shocks on health behaviors of middle-aged and elderly spouses

HU Peijie; LI Yong

doi:10.12102/j.issn.1009-6493.2025.09.011

Abstract：Objective:To analyze how health shocks change the health behavior of middle-aged and elderly people,and to quantitatively study whether the health shocks suffered by'oneself'in middle-aged and elderly couples will change the health behavior of'spouses',so as to provide policy enlightenment for further improving the health literacy of the whole people and improving the system of health field.Methods:The data are sourced from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS),and five waves of panel data from 2011,2013,2015,2018,and 2020 are selected.Using the exogenous shock caused by the family health event of'I'diagnosed heart disease in both husband and wife to the'spouse'as the core explanatory variable,a progressive difference-in-difference model was constructed to analyze the impact of health shock on the health behavior of middle-aged and elderly'spouses'.The event analysis method was introduced to explore the long-term impact of the spillover effect.And on this basis,the heterogeneity and mechanism of this effect in different characteristic populations were further discussed.Results:An empirical study based on the data of the five-stage China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study shows that the'self'health shock significantly reduces the frequency of smoking and drinking among'spouses',and reduces the probability of drinking,while increasing the probability of exercise and outpatient medical service utilization.However,the results obtained by using the event analysis method show that the duration of this effect is short.And there is no long-term effect.Conclusions:In the middle-aged and elderly population,the'I'health shock could improve the health behavior of the'spouse'significantly,but the effect is not lasting in the long run.It varied between different genders and people with or without heart disease.