Marriage linked to lower risk of dementia
Being married, or ever having been married, comes with a much lower risk of developing dementia compared to being a lifelong bachelor or bachelorette, a new analysis of previous studies suggests.
Researchers found that people who never married were 42 per cent more likely than those who were married at midlife to ever be diagnosed with dementia. Being divorced, though, was not tied to higher dementia risk compared with the folks who stayed married.
“Our findings, from large populations across numerous countries and time periods, are the strongest evidence yet that married people are less likely to develop dementia. We can be fairly certain of this considering that we have looked at close to a million people,” said lead author Andrew Sommerlad of University College, London.
“What we can’t be certain of in this study is what the explanation for this is,” he said in a phone interview.
Sommerlad and his team analysed 15 studies published up to the end of 2016 that looked at the potential role of marital status on dementia risk. The new analysis included more than 812,000 participants in those studies, half of whom were 65 years of age or older. The studies were done in Europe, North and South America and Asia.
Although one study from Sweden contributed the vast majority of participants, the other studies were also broadly in agreement with the results of that one, the authors note in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
“There’s a huge literature showing that marriage is beneficial for health in lots of different ways,” said Joan Monin of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut, who wasn’t involved in the study. “Spouses share specific healthy behaviours for wellbeing like engaging in physical activities, watching their diet and limiting substance abuse,” she said in a phone interview.
The widowed have a 20 per cent increased risk of developing dementia compared with married individuals, Sommerlad noted. He speculates that this may be due to the stress of bereavement, or a longer-term effect.
The widowed have a 20 per cent increased risk of developing dementia compared to married individuals
REUTERS