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Evidence continues to build for the impact of the marital relationship on health as well as the negative impact of illness on the partner. Targeting both patient and partner may enhance the efficacy of psychosocial or behavioral interventions for chronic illness.

The purpose of this report is to present a cross-disease review of the characteristics and findings of studies evaluating couple-oriented interventions for chronic physical illness.

We conducted a qualitative review of 33 studies and meta-analyses for a subset of 25 studies.

Identified studies focused on cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, HIV, and Type 2 diabetes. Couple interventions had significant effects on patient depressive symptoms (d = 0.18, p < 0.01, k = 20), marital functioning (d = 0.17, p < 0.01, k = 18 …