ArticleSSM - population health2022
Associations between cognitive function and marital status in the United States, South Africa, Mexico, and China.
Article in SSM - population health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- "Kinlessness", friend and family support, and cognitive function by region and urbanicity in the United States.Health & place · 2026Article
- Gender Differences in the Association Between Marriage and Cognitive Decline: Evidence From the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS).PsyCh journal · 2026Article
- The association between lifetime marital histories and later-life cognitive function: evidence from the United States and China.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Social connectedness and cognitive outcomes in rural middle- to older-age adults.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Cumulative poverty across early adulthood and midlife cognition: findings from the national longitudinal survey of youth.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2026Article
- The importance of modifiable lifestyle factors for episodic memory: a gradient boosted tree analysis.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Article
- Longitudinal Associations of Job Demand-Control Characteristics With Objective and Subjective Cognitive Outcomes in Older Workers: The Health and Retirement Study.American journal of industrial medicine · 2025Article
- Factors associated with cognitive performance among urban older adults of Dodoma City, central Tanzania: a cross-sectional study.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Prevalence of Cognitive Impairment and Its Associated Factors in a Rural Area of Ernakulam District, Kerala, India.Cureus · 2025Article
- Does partnership predict mortality? Evidence from a twin fixed effects study design.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- Multivariate decomposition of gender differentials in cognitive impairment among older adults in India based on Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, 2017-2018.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Gendered Marital Power, Depression, and Cognition Among Older Adults in Mexico.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Behavioral and psychological outcomes of marital status and transition among aging adults in rural South Africa: A longitudinal analysis.Journal Of Human Behavior In The Social Environment · 2025Article
- Urban-rural disparities in fall risk among older Chinese adults: insights from machine learning-based predictive models.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Risk and protective factors for cognitive decline in Brazilian lower educated older adults: A 15-year follow-up study using group-based trajectory modelling.Archives of gerontology and geriatrics · 2024Article
- Late-life psychiatric factors and life satisfaction are associated with cognitive errors: evidence from an experimental module of a large-scale survey in India.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Associations between Physical Activity Frequency in Leisure Time and Subjective Cognitive Limitations in Middle-Aged Spanish Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The relationship between marital status and cognitive impairment in Chinese older adults: the multiple mediating effects of social support and depression.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Association between Marital Status and Cognitive Impairment in a Multi-Ethnic Asian Population.Neuroepidemiology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
We investigate the associations between marital status and cognitive well-being among adults aged 50 and older across four settings: the United States, rural South Africa, Mexico, and China. Using a standardized measure of immediate word recall, we assess whether people in each non-married status have worse cognitive function than their married counterparts, and the extent to which these associations vary across settings. We theorize that the practices around marriage in each setting, as well as the social stigma attached to marital dissolution, will reveal differing associations between marital status and cognition. Results suggest that, among women, being in a widowed marital status is associated with lower cognitive function in each setting except Mexico (after accounting for education and employment), while being separated/divorced or never married is associated with lower cognitive function only among women in the U.S. and Mexico. Among men, being widowed is associated with lower cognitive function relative to being married in each setting except South Africa (after accounting for education and employment), and being never married is associated with lower cognitive function in the U.S. and China (but not in South Africa or Mexico, after accounting for education and employment). Men also face relatively lower cognitive function if separated/divorced in the U.S. and South Africa. We discuss possible reasons for these associations across settings.
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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.