New research challenges the widespread idea that married always live longer and have better mental health.
Would believe if I told you that being single or ending your marriage can decrease your Probabilities of contracting dementia? A new conducted by researchers from Florida State University suggests, in a shocking way, that single people are less likely to develop dementia.
It is thought that Already heard the oppositeit is correct. An American 2019 study concluded that single people had “probability significantly higher to develop dementia during the study period than their married counterparts.”
In fact, married people are generally considered to have better health. Studies have shown that they are in a small risk of suffering heart disease and strokes and tend to live longer. So why did the new study come to this surprising conclusion? Let’s see with more detail.
Researchers analyzed data from over 24,000 Americans without dementia at the beginning of the study. Participants were accompanied for 18 years. The team compared the dementia rates between marital groups: married, divorced, widowed and never married.
Initially, it seemed that all three singles of singles had a reduced risk of dementia compared to the married group. However, after taking into account other factors that could influence results, such as smoking and depression, only the divorced and those who never married had a lower risk of dementia.
Differences were also observed according to the type of dementia. For example, not being married was consistently associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. But the same was not true in the case of vascular dementia – a rarer form of the disease.
The investigators also found that the divorced or never married people had less likely to evolve From a slight cognitive deficit to dementia and that the people who wate during the study had a lower risk of dementia.
Possible explanations
One of the reasons for unexpected results? Married people can be early diagnosed Because they have spouses who realize memory problems and insist on a visit to the doctor. This can make dementia seem to be more common in married people, even if it is not.
This is called the determination bias-when data is distorted due to who is diagnosed or detected more easily. However, the evidence of this fact was not strong. All participants had annual visits to a doctorwhich could be considered as a substitute partner who would detect early signs of dementia in the participant.
Perhaps the fact that the sample of people used from the study of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) is not representative of the general population. Specifically, the sample presented low levels of ethnic diversity and income. In addition, almost 64% of participants were married. This can affect the way these unexpected discoveries translate into the world in general. Could only be exclusive to NACC participants.
However, it is more likely that these results emphasize the complexity of the effects of interruptions, transitions and marital choices on brain health. Being married is by no means a factor of protection established for dementia, having a previous meta-analysis (a study of study) presented mixed results.
The new study of the State University of Florida uses one of the largest samples to date To analyze this issue and has a great weight. The study underlines that assumptions based on previous investigations, according to which widowhood and divorce are very stressful life events that can trigger Alzheimer’s disease or that single people are socially isolated and therefore a higher risk of dementia may not always be correct.
The dynamics of relationships are by no means simple. As mentioned in the document, this dynamic can “provide a more tiny understanding than a simple binary effect. ”Factors such as the quality of marriage, the levels of satisfaction after divorce, cultural considerations, or the sociability of single people compared to married can help explain these apparently contradictory results.
This study challenges the idea that marriage is automatically good for brain health. Instead, it suggests that the effect of relationships on dementia is much more complex. What matters may not be the state of your relationship, but the support, connection and realization you feel.
