Rosie Shrout
Satisfying relationships provide health benefits, yet all couples experience stress that can increase morbidity and mortality risks. A relationship’s health impact is similar to that of well-established health behaviors like smoking cigarettes, exercising, and drinking alcohol. My research identifies the underlying psychological, behavioral, and biological mechanisms that foster each partner’s health and longevity or fuel their disease risk and early mortality. In this talk, I will first discuss my integrated social-health approach to studying relationships and health using dyadic stress theories and biobehavioral methods. I will then illustrate how partners navigate common yet challenging stressors—conflict, chronic illness, and cancer—in ways that influence each other’s health, including the gut microbiome, and endocrine, cardiovascular, and immune function. I will also present key coping strategies couples use to facilitate necessary yet difficult conversations particularly when managing chronic illness. Overall, I will show that relationships are a public health priority and a target for prevention and intervention efforts to foster health and longevity.