1 Minimizing the need for care work. Men generally downplayed the seriousness of health concerns and the need for care work. Men reported lower expectations for care work and described providing less care work than women, whether they were married to a man or a woman. Intensive care work. Women tended to describe their spouse's physical illness as more intensive and immersive than did men, and as requiring much more attention to reading and responding to their spouse's needs-especially their

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... tional needs. This was generally the case for women regardless of whether they were married to a man or a woman. Care work during one's own illness. Women often described doing care work during their own illness, primarily because they were concerned about the stress their illness caused for their spouse. Men rarely described this kind of care work. Concordance. In same-sex couples, both spouses, including the ill spouse, tended to agree on whether the illness should be treated in a low-key way or given intensive attention. Discordance. Heterosexual spouses were less likely than same-sex spouses to be on the same page when it came to perceptions of physical illness and the amount and type of care work that was needed during illness. Numbers above zero indicate scores above the sample mean; numbers below zero indicate scores below the sample mean. Instrumental care work during health events. Women tended to provide and receive more instrumental care than men; women who were married to women provided and received the most instrumental care. Instrumental care work during health events. Men and women in same-sex marriages reported providing more emotion care for their spouse than did men and women in different-sex marriages. However, during their own health event, women-whether they were married to a man or a woman-provided more emotion care to their spouse than did men. Health-related marital stress. Men and women married to a woman reported more marital stress from the health event than did those married to a man; women as patients-whether married to a woman or a manperceived their health event as more stressful for their relationship than did men. CARE WORK AND MARITAL STRESS ASSOCIATED WITH A SPOUSE 'S PHYSICAL ILLNESS (standard scores from regression models) KEY FINDINGS, CONTINUED SURVEY-BASED STUDY (SEE FIGURE) POLICY IMPLICATIONS These studies point to the importance of collecting both the spouses' and the patients' experiences about a health event. Including the perspective of both spouses illuminates marital dynamics during significant physical health events. Moreover, this research can inform health policies and clinical strategies that best support the health of gay, lesbian, and heterosexual patients and their spouses. A better understanding of the ways that lesbian and gay spouses in midlife care for each other during a spouse's health event, and how this compares to care among heterosexual couples, is key to designing more effective strategies for the inclusion of spouses in treatment plans. These strategies can also be designed to address unique sources of stress as well as unique stressors across union types. Spousal care work during periods of illness may be especially important to same-sex couples given health disparities within gay and lesbian populations, including higher rates of breast cancer, AIDS, respiratory disease and other chronic conditions. 3 The University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center (PRC) aims to provide outstanding infrastructure resources and sustain a dynamic interdisciplinary culture geared toward facilitating the highest level of cutting-edge, population-related research. Our researchers' projects focus primarily on Family Demography and Intergenerational