Spousal bereavement and its effects on later life physical and cognitive capability: the Tromsø study

• Published in: GeroScience
• Main Authors: Strand, Bjørn Heine, Håberg, Asta, Eyjólfsdóttir, Harpa Sif, Kok, Almar, Skirbekk, Vegard Fykse, Huxhold, Oliver, Løset, Gøril Kvamme, Lennartsson, Carin, Schirmer, Henrik, Herlofson, Katharina, Veenstra, Marijke
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2024
• Subjects: Tromsø
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/33767; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-024-01150-y

Spousal bereavement is associated with health declines and increased mortality risk, but its specific impact on physical and cognitive capabilities is less studied. A historical cohort study design was applied including married Tromsø study participants (N=5739) aged 50–70 years with baseline self-reported overall health and health-related factors and measured capability (grip strength, finger tapping, digit symbol coding, and short-term recall) at follow-up. Participants had data from Tromsø4 (1994–1995) and Tromsø5 (2001), or Tromsø6 (2007–2008) and Tromsø7 (2015–2016). Propensity score matching, adjusted for baseline confounders (and baseline capability in a subset), was used to investigate whether spousal bereavement was associated with poorer subsequent capability. Spousal bereavement occurred for 6.2% on average 3.7 years (SD 2.0) before the capability assessment. There were no significant bereavement effects on subsequent grip strength, immediate recall, or finger-tapping speed. Without adjustment for baseline digit symbol coding test performance, there was a negative significant effect on the digit symbol coding test (ATT −1.33; 95% confidence interval −2.57, −0.10), but when baseline digit symbol coding test performance was taken into account in a smaller subsample, using the same set of matching confounders, there was no longer any association (in the subsample ATT changed from −1.29 (95% CI −3.38, 0.80) to −0.04 (95% CI −1.83, 1.75). The results in our study suggest that spousal bereavement does not have long-term effects on the intrinsic capacity components physical or cognition capability to a notable degree.