SynthesisNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews2022
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.
Synthesis in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Taiwanese family members' bereavement experience following an expected death: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.BMC palliative care · 2024Pooled it
- A Web-Based Resilience-Enhancing Program to Improve Resilience, Physical Activity, and Well-being in Geriatric Population: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Trial
- The Impact of Dementia Caregiving on the Health of the Spousal Caregiver.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
- Recruiting Spousal Caregivers of People Living With Alzheimer's or a Related Dementia for Caregiver Intervention Research: Lessons Learned From a Feasibility Study.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2025Article
- Associations between widowhood status/duration, depression, and cognitive function among community-dwelling Indians age 60 years or older: Exploration of sex and residential factors.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Cortical thickness and low-grade inflammation moderate the association between depressive symptoms and cognitive function in early widowhood: A preliminary study.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Gastrointestinal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: Clinical characteristics and prognostic analysis from SEER database.Biomolecules & biomedicine · 2025Article
- An analysis of the factors influencing the demand for care in the community for older adults with mild dementia in China: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Marital Status-Specific Associations Between Multidomain Leisure Activities and Cognitive Reserve in Clinically Unimpaired Older Adults: Based on a National Chinese Cohort.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Midlife financial stress and cognitive and physical impairments in older age: The role of potentially modifying factors.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- Hospitalizations of the older adults with and without dementia during the last two years of life: the impact of comorbidity and changes from 2002 to 2017.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2025Article
- Alcohol and stress exposure across the lifespan are key risk factors for Alzheimer's Disease and cognitive decline.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- Social connections as determinants of cognitive health and as targets for social interventions in persons with or at risk of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders: a scoping review.International psychogeriatrics · 2024Article
- Cognitive Decline After Divorce and Widowhood: Is Marital Loss Always a Loss?Innovation in aging · 2024Article
- Trajectories of cognitive function development and predictive factors in disabled middle-aged and older adults.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- A study on cognitive trajectory changes and predictive factors in middle-aged and older adults individuals with dual sensory impairment based on the health social determinants model.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Understanding the health effects of caregiving stress: New directions in molecular aging.Ageing research reviews · 2023Review
- Spousal Cognitive Status and Risk for Declining Cognitive Function and Dementia: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.Journal of aging and health · 2023Article
- The interactive effects of psychosocial stress and diet composition on health in primates.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Plasma levels of neurology-related proteins are associated with cognitive performance in an older population with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome.GeroScience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Accumulating research suggests that stressful life events, especially those that threaten close intimate bonds, are associated with an increased risk of dementia. Grieving the loss of a spouse, whether in the form of caregiving or after the death, ranks among 'life's most significant stressors', evoking intense psychological and physiological distress. Despite numerous studies reporting elevated dementia risk or poorer cognition among spousal caregivers and widow(er)s compared to controls, no review has summarized findings across cognitive outcomes (i.e., dementia incidence, cognitive impairment rates, cognitive performance) or proposed a theoretical model for understanding the links between partner loss and abnormal cognitive decline. The current systematic review summarizes findings across 64 empirical studies. Overall, both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies revealed an adverse association between partner loss and cognitive outcomes. In turn, we propose a biopsychosocial model of cognitive decline that explains how caregiving and bereavement may position some to develop cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. More longitudinal studies that focus on the biopsychosocial context of caregivers and widow(er)s are needed.
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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.