Studies in the Journal of Ageing and Health show thatpeople who remain married for a substantial part of their lives are less likely to develop dementia later in life. Vegard skirbekk, Ph.D. is a prominent author at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. He stated in a press release, that marriage has a negative impact on the brain and may increase the risk of developing dementia.
He also noted that those who have been married for a long time had the lowest chance of developing dementia. However, those who are single or divorcing have a higher chance of developing mild cognitive impairments or dementia. Experts conducted a study using data from the HUNT, which included 8,706 participants. This was to fully understand the effects of marital status on brain health. This is a large population-based survey of health in Norway, which is currently ongoing.
The above study examined marital status for 24 years. The participants ranged in age from 44 to 68. Experts conducted the study to determine if there was any evidence of a link between clinically diagnosed dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), after the age 70.
Dementia is a severe impairment of memory, language and other brain functions that can hamper your daily activities. This definition was made by the Alzheimer’s Association . MCI is a milder condition that can eventually lead to dementia. This may not necessarily be true for all patients.
Findings from the HUNT Study
Over two decades later, 11.6 participants were diagnosed as having dementia. 35.3 percent had MCI. The following were the categories that were created from these participants:
- Unmarried participants;
- Participants who were married continuously;
- Continuously Divorced: Those who didn’t marry during the entire study period of 24 years.
- Intermittently Divorced: This means they were divorcing and then remarried during the research.
- Intermittently married people who were married and divorced multiple times.
- Widowed participants.
These were the key findings of the study:
- This dementia was more common among unmarried participants (14.1%) than it was among those who were married continuously (11.2%).
- There was a high chance of dementia in unmarried participants and participants who were continuously or intermittently divorced.
- The risk of MCI was higher in unmarried individuals.
