Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study
The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between loss of a life partner and the development of dementia and decline in cognitive function in later life. We used an Icelandic cohort of 4,370 participants in the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study who were living as m...
Published in: | American Journal of Epidemiology |
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:amjepid:kwt321v1 2023-05-15T16:50:48+02:00 Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study Vidarsdottir, Halldora Fang, Fang Chang, Milan Aspelund, Thor Fall, Katja Jonsdottir, Maria K. Jonsson, Palmi V. Cotch, Mary Frances Harris, Tamara B. Launer, Lenore J. Gudnason, Vilmundur Valdimarsdottir, Unnur 2014-01-19 22:22:52.0 text/html http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/kwt321v1 https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt321 en eng Oxford University Press http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/kwt321v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt321 Copyright (C) 2014, Oxford University Press Original Contribution TEXT 2014 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt321 2016-11-16T18:56:19Z The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between loss of a life partner and the development of dementia and decline in cognitive function in later life. We used an Icelandic cohort of 4,370 participants in the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study who were living as married in 1978 (born in 1907–1935) and were either still married (unexposed cohort) or widowed (exposed cohort) at follow-up (in 2002–2006). We ascertained history of marital status and spouse's death by record linkage to the Registry of the Total Population, Statistics Iceland. The outcome measures were as follows: 1) dementia and mild cognitive impairment; and 2) memory, speed of processing, and executive function. During the observation period, 3,007 individuals remained married and 1,363 lost a spouse through death. We did not find any significant associations between loss of a spouse and our outcome variables, except that widowed women had poorer executive function (mean = −0.08) during the first 2 years after their husbands’ deaths compared with still-married women (mean = 0.09). Our findings do not support the notion that the risk of dementia is increased following the loss of a spouse, yet women demonstrate a seemingly temporary decline in executive function following the death of a partner. Text Iceland HighWire Press (Stanford University) American Journal of Epidemiology 179 6 674 683 |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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English |
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Original Contribution |
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Original Contribution Vidarsdottir, Halldora Fang, Fang Chang, Milan Aspelund, Thor Fall, Katja Jonsdottir, Maria K. Jonsson, Palmi V. Cotch, Mary Frances Harris, Tamara B. Launer, Lenore J. Gudnason, Vilmundur Valdimarsdottir, Unnur Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study |
topic_facet |
Original Contribution |
description |
The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between loss of a life partner and the development of dementia and decline in cognitive function in later life. We used an Icelandic cohort of 4,370 participants in the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study who were living as married in 1978 (born in 1907–1935) and were either still married (unexposed cohort) or widowed (exposed cohort) at follow-up (in 2002–2006). We ascertained history of marital status and spouse's death by record linkage to the Registry of the Total Population, Statistics Iceland. The outcome measures were as follows: 1) dementia and mild cognitive impairment; and 2) memory, speed of processing, and executive function. During the observation period, 3,007 individuals remained married and 1,363 lost a spouse through death. We did not find any significant associations between loss of a spouse and our outcome variables, except that widowed women had poorer executive function (mean = −0.08) during the first 2 years after their husbands’ deaths compared with still-married women (mean = 0.09). Our findings do not support the notion that the risk of dementia is increased following the loss of a spouse, yet women demonstrate a seemingly temporary decline in executive function following the death of a partner. |
format |
Text |
author |
Vidarsdottir, Halldora Fang, Fang Chang, Milan Aspelund, Thor Fall, Katja Jonsdottir, Maria K. Jonsson, Palmi V. Cotch, Mary Frances Harris, Tamara B. Launer, Lenore J. Gudnason, Vilmundur Valdimarsdottir, Unnur |
author_facet |
Vidarsdottir, Halldora Fang, Fang Chang, Milan Aspelund, Thor Fall, Katja Jonsdottir, Maria K. Jonsson, Palmi V. Cotch, Mary Frances Harris, Tamara B. Launer, Lenore J. Gudnason, Vilmundur Valdimarsdottir, Unnur |
author_sort |
Vidarsdottir, Halldora |
title |
Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study |
title_short |
Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study |
title_full |
Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study |
title_fullStr |
Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spousal Loss and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A 25-year Follow-up in the AGES-Reykjavik Study |
title_sort |
spousal loss and cognitive function in later life: a 25-year follow-up in the ages-reykjavik study |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/kwt321v1 https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt321 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/kwt321v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt321 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2014, Oxford University Press |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt321 |
container_title |
American Journal of Epidemiology |
container_volume |
179 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
674 |
op_container_end_page |
683 |
_version_ |
1766040913758388224 |