Depression causes a substantial burden on a person’s health and well-being. However, evidence is limited regarding whether depression of one person in a marital relationship may affect the other partner’s health. We assessed whether depression in one partner within a married couple might contribute to the other partner’s mortality hazard, also considering whether only one or both partners have depression.

We examined a nationally representative sample comprising 8,442 older US adults within 4,225 couples from the Health and Retirement Study. Using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, we characterized depression status as follows: i) no depression in either partner, ii) depression in respondent only, iii) depression in spouse only, and iv) depression in respondent and their spouse. Associations between couples’ depression status on individuals’ mortality hazards over 11 years were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for 27 characteristics of the individual, their spouse, and their household.

We observed a higher mortality hazard when only the respondent had depression (hazard ratio (HR): 1.44 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.26, 1.66]), as well as a modestly elevated hazard when only their spouse exhibited depression (HR: 1.18 [95% CI: 1.01, 1.39]). When both partners had depression, we observed a jointly elevated mortality hazard (HR: 1.53 [95% CI: 1.26, 1.86]).

Results suggest the harmful effects of depression could extend beyond the individual to spouses’ physical health. Future studies on health effects of depression should incorporate familial contexts.