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. 2010 May;58(5):895-900.
doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.02806.x.

Greater risk of dementia when spouse has dementia? The Cache County study

Maria C Norton  1 , Ken R Smith, Truls Østbye, JoAnn T Tschanz, Chris Corcoran, Sarah Schwartz, Kathleen W Piercy, Peter V Rabins, David C Steffens, Ingmar Skoog, John C S Breitner, Kathleen A Welsh-Bohmer; Cache County Investigators
Affiliations

Greater risk of dementia when spouse has dementia? The Cache County study

Maria C Norton et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2010 May.

Erratum in

  • J Am Geriatr Soc. 2012 May;60(5):1000
  • J Am Geriatr Soc. 2013 Sep;61(9):1642

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the effects of caring for a spouse with dementia on the caregiver's risk for incident dementia.

Design: Population-based study of incident dementia in spouses of persons with dementia.

Setting: Rural county in northern Utah.

Participants: Two thousand four hundred forty-two subjects (1,221 married couples) aged 65 and older.

Measurements: Incident dementia was diagnosed in 255 subjects, with onset defined as age when subject met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised, criteria for dementia. Cox proportional hazards regression tested the effect of time-dependent exposure to dementia in one's spouse, adjusted for potential confounders.

Results: A subject whose spouse experienced incident dementia onset had a six times greater risk for incident dementia as subjects whose spouses were dementia free (hazard rate ratio (HRR)=6.0, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.2-16.2, P<.001). In sex-specific analyses, husbands had higher risks (HRR=11.9, 95% CI=1.7-85.5, P=.01) than wives (HRR=3.7, 95% CI=1.2-11.6, P=.03).

Conclusion: The chronic and often severe stress associated with dementia caregiving may exert substantial risk for the development of dementia in spouse caregivers. Additional (not mutually exclusive) explanations for findings are discussed.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None of the authors has any financial or personal conflicts of interest, or relationships and affiliations relevant to the subject of this manuscript.

Comment in

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