Marital loss and risk of dementia: Do race and gender matter?

Recent studies have found that marital loss through divorce or widowhood is associated with a higher risk of dementia for older adults. However, whether these associations vary by race and gender is less clear. To address this gap, we drew upon longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science & medicine (1982) 2021-04, Vol.275, p.113808-113808, Article 113808
Main Authors: Zhang, Zhenmei, Liu, Hui, Choi, Seung-won Emily
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Black people
Dementia
Dementia - epidemiology
Demography
Divorce
Economic factors
Economic resources
Ethnic groups
Ethnicity
Female
Gender
Humans
Income
Male
Marital Status
Marriage
Older people
Race
Retirement
Risk
United States
United States - epidemiology
White people
Widowhood
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Summary:Recent studies have found that marital loss through divorce or widowhood is associated with a higher risk of dementia for older adults. However, whether these associations vary by race and gender is less clear. To address this gap, we drew upon longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000–2016) to investigate the association between marital loss and dementia risk, separately for non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks. We further examined gender variations in the link between marital loss and dementia risk within each racial group. Results from discrete-time event history models suggested that widowhood is significantly associated with a higher risk of dementia for both Whites and Blacks, controlling for basic demographic characteristics. However, while divorce is significantly associated with a higher risk of dementia for Blacks, the association is marginally significant (p 
ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113808