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 Researchers found that people who never married were 42 percent 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 Dr. 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 analyzed 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 behaviors 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 percent 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.
As for the lack of difference between married people and those who
divorced, Sommerlad attributes it to the possibility that a lot of
divorced people continue to keep in contact with each other,
especially if they have children together.
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Social isolation is one of the nine risk factors for dementia
identified by the Lancet Commission on Dementia, Prevention,
Intervention and Care in July (http://bit.ly/2uEINTJ).
Worldwide there are nearly 47 million people living with dementia,
or a loss of brain function, including memory, thinking and
behavior, according to the World Health Organization. Alzheimer’s
disease is the most common cause of dementia.
Sommerlad emphasized that no cause-and-effect conclusions can be
drawn from his team’s analysis because it's not known what underpins
the results. Another limitation is that the included studies lacked
information about the duration of widowhood and divorce as well as
the nature of the marriages.
“The institution of marriage is undergoing rapid changes with the
acceptance of same-sex marriages and alternatives to marriage, such
as cohabitation,” Dr. Christopher Chen of the Yong Loo Lin School of
Medicine at the National University of Singapore and a co-author
write in an editorial accompanying the study.
“There have been large changes in society so we need to be aware
that the conclusions may not be as relevant,” Chen told Reuters
Health by email.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2zOr00n and http://bit.ly/2Asl3po Journal of
Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, online November 28, 2017.
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