With love comes your partner's bad habits, new study finds

Getting married has long been considered a boon to your health and happiness, but new research says that living with your loved one can actually mean adopting his or her unhealthy habits.

Cohabitating with a romantic partner, gay or straight, can result in more boozing, more junk food, and less time at the gym, revealed the researchers. The reason? Both partners can "sync up" their unhealthy habits or one partner can serve as a "bad influence" on the other in terms of lifestyle choices.

In heterosexual couples in the study, men were typically viewed as the bad influence, the researchers said.

Gay and lesbian couples more often reported a phenomenon the researchers refer to as "habit synchronicity."

"For these individuals, one partner may not engage in what they consider an unhealthy habit on their own, but when their desire for such a habit is matched by their partners, they partake in unhealthy habits," said study researcher Corinne Reczek, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati.

The study will be presented August 23 at the American Sociological Association meeting in Las Vegas in the US.

Previous research has found that while women tend to be at risk for weight gain after marriage, married men who have heart attacks seek medical attention faster than unmarried men and have been found to drink and smoke less.

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110818190609.htm