ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2021
Marital loss and risk of dementia: Do race and gender matter?
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Spousal caregiving, widowhood, and cognition: A systematic review and a biopsychosocial framework for understanding the relationship between interpersonal losses and dementia risk in older adulthood.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Article
- Sedentary behavior and psychological distress among Chinese rural older adults: the role of spouse loss and physical exercise.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Marital status and risk of dementia over 18 years: Surprising findings from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Marital status, brain health, and cognitive reserve among diverse older adults.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2025Article
- Characteristics, Needs, and Perspectives of Individuals Living Alone With Dementia: An Integrative Review.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Gender, Marital Histories, and Cognitive Impairment in Later Life: Does Remarriage Disadvantage Women?Innovation in aging · 2025Article
- Life Events and Incident Dementia: A Prospective Study of 493,787 Individuals Over 16 Years.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Perceived Discrimination and Incident Dementia Among Older Adults in the United States: The Buffering Role of Social Relationships.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Gender Differences in the Protective Role of Grandparenting in Dementia Risk.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Cognitive Decline After Divorce and Widowhood: Is Marital Loss Always a Loss?Innovation in aging · 2024Article
- Partnership status and positive DNA methylation age acceleration across the adult lifespan in the UK.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Marital Loss and Cognitive Function: Does Timing Matter?The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2022Article
- Sibling Deaths, Racial/Ethnic Disadvantage, and Dementia in Later Life.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2022Article
- Personalised treatment for cognitive impairment in dementia: development and validation of an artificial intelligence model.BMC medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
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 < 0.1) for Whites. There are few significant gender variations in these associations except for the effect of divorce among Whites. Even after controlling for economic and health-related factors, we found that divorce is associated with a higher risk of dementia among White men but not among White women. Economic resources explain a significant portion of the association between widowhood and dementia risk, more so for Whites than for Blacks. Our findings call for more research into the pathways through which marital loss shapes the risk of dementia across racial and ethnic groups.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.