Marital status and cognitive impairment in the United States: evidence from the National Health and Aging Trends Study.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

We provide population-based longitudinal evidence of marital status differences in the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in the United States.

Methods

Data were from the longitudinal National Health and Aging Trends Study, 2011-2018. The sample included 7508 respondents aged 65 years and older who contributed 25,897 person-year records. We estimated discrete-time hazard models to predict the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment, not dementia (CIND), as well as impairment in three major cognitive domains: memory, orientation, and executive function.

Results

Relative to their married counterparts, divorced and widowed elders had higher odds of dementia and CIND, as well as higher odds of impairment in each of the cognitive domains. Never-married eld

SUBMITTER: Liu H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6812624 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature