Now being married has been linked to an increased risk of dementia
WCould you have believed me if you told you that remaining single or ending your marriage could reduce your chances of obtaining dementia? A new study conducted by researchers from Florida State University suggests somehow shocking that unmarried people are less likely to develop dementia.
If you think you’ve heard the opposite, you’re right. A study from 2019 from America discovered that unmarried people had “significantly higher probability of developing dementia in the period of study than their married counterparties”.
In fact, married people are thought to have better health. Studies have shown that they are at risk of having heart disease and strokes and tend to live longer. So why did the new study find this discovery surprising? Let’s take a closer look.
The researchers analyzed the data of over 24,000 Americans without dementia at the beginning of the study. Participants were monitored for a maximum of 18 years. Basically, the team compared dementia rates between married groups: married, divorced, widowed and never married.
Initially, it seemed that all three unmarried groups had a reduced risk of dementia compared to the married group. But, after taking into account other factors that could influence results such as smoke and depression, only divorced and never married people had a lower risk of dementia.
Differences were also observed according to the type of dementia. For example, being unmarried was constantly linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. But it has not been shown for vascular dementia, a rarer form of the condition.
The researchers also discovered that divorced or never married people were less likely to progress from slight cognitive compromise to dementia and that the people who were widows during the study had a lower risk of dementia.
Possible explanations
One of the reasons for unexpected results? Married people could be diagnosed before because they have spouses who notice memory problems and push for a doctor’s visit. This could make dementia more common in married people, even if it is not.
This is called assessment bias: when the data are distorted due to those who are diagnosed or noticed more easily. However, the proof of this was not strong. All participants had annual visits from a doctor, who could be thought of as a partner by prosecutor who would identify the first signs of dementia in the participant.
Perhaps it was the case that the sample of people used, by the national coordination study of Alzheimer’s (Nacc), was not representative of the wider population. In particular, the sample showed low levels of ethnic and income diversity. In addition, almost 64% of the participants were married. This can influence the way these unexpected results translate into a wider world. They may have been unique for the participants of the Nacc.
However, these results are more likely to highlight how complex the effects of marital interruptions, transitions and choices on the health of the brain are. Being married is not at all a protective factor established for dementia, with a previous meta-analysis (a study study) that shows contrasting results.
Florida State University’s new study uses one of the greatest champions to date to examine this problem and brings a lot of weight. He underlines that the hypotheses based on previous research according to which widowhood and divorce are very stressful life events that can trigger Alzheimer’s disease or that unmarried people are socially isolated and therefore can be at greater risk of dementia, may not always be corrected.
Relationship dynamics are not simple at all. As mentioned in the document, these dynamics can “provide a more nuanced understanding of a simple binary effect”. Factors such as the quality of the marriage, the levels of satisfaction after the divorce, the cultural considerations or the sociability of the individuals compared to the coupled ones can help to explain these apparently contradictory results.
This study challenges the idea that marriage is automatically good for brain health. Instead, it suggests that the effect of dementia relationships is much more complex. What matters may not be your state of relationship but how much you feel supported, connected and satisfied.
Avinash Chandra is post -neurology researcher at Queen Mary University in London.
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