Marriage may help stave off dementia

Marriage may lower the risk of developing dementia, concludes a UCL-led synthesis of the available evidence published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry . Lifelong singletons and widowers are at heightened risk of developing the disease, the findings indicate, although single status may no longer be quite the health hazard it once seemed to be, the researchers acknowledge. "Married people tend to have healthier lifestyles and are more socially engaged, which may explain why they're less likely to develop dementia," said the study's lead author, Dr Andrew Sommerlad (UCL Psychiatry). The team based their findings on data from 15 relevant studies published up to the end of 2016. These looked at the potential role of marital status on dementia risk, and involved more than 800,000 participants from Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Married people accounted for between 28 and 80 per cent of people in the included studies; the widowed made up between around 8 and 48 per cent; the divorced between 0 and 16 per cent; and lifelong singletons between 0 and 32.5 per cent. Pooled analysis of the data showed that compared with those who were married, lifelong singletons were 42 per cent more likely to develop dementia, after taking account of age and sex.