Losing your partner can trigger dementia

We’re more likely to develop dementia if, in middle age, we lose a partner, struggle to sleep or are extremely skinny, US researchers have claimed.

And the scientists believe their findings from a study of more than 5,000 Americans, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, could help to prevent the condition.

Boston neurobiologist Rhoda Au and colleagues used data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has been following generations of residents in the Massachusetts town for 70 years.

A computer programme has identified circumstances that dementia patients had in common before diagnosis.

Professor Au said: “We are hoping to identify disease risk factors that are amenable to change, enabling the possibility of preventing dementia”.

Her researchers examined information on demographics and lifestyles collected from 1979 until 1983 in Framingham and then looked at who developed dementia.

As was expected, age was the biggest factor.

Those who were widowed in their 50s or 60s, had a lower body mass index and slept poorly were at greater risk than middle-aged people who were married, were of a normal weight and slept well.

The researchers focused on readily available information.

Professor Au said: “We wanted to identify information that any physician or even non-physician has easy access to in determining potential risk for dementia.”

Dementia is an illness that affects about 850,000 people in Britain.

This is expected to rise to a million by 2025.