People are interconnected and their health is too. We pay a lot of attention to other risk factors for ill health: tobacco exposure, poverty. Here's another risk factor: having an ill partner.

What it means to me is that people are interconnected, and so their health is interconnected, and in really real ways, there can be a kind of spread of disease between people.

What it shows is that people are interconnected, and their health is interconnected, and seeing a person you love suffer, seeing them ill, harms you.

What it means to me is that people are interconnected, and so their health is interconnected, and in really real ways, there can be a kind of spread of disease between people.

When a spouse is hospitalized, the partner's risk of death increases significantly and remains elevated for up to two years. Stress and lack of social support may also adversely affect immunologic measures, so spousal hospitalization may have physiological effects on partners.

When a spouse is hospitalized, the partner's risk of death increases significantly and remains elevated for up to two years.