Spousal Dementia Tied to Higher Dementia Risk

TOPLINESpouses of individuals with dementia had a higher risk of developing dementia, according to a nationwide cohort study of married individuals in Taiwan.METHODOLOGYResearchers conducted a nationwide, population-based cohort study using data from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database from 1998 to 2022.The study included 955,105 married individuals: 118,904 women and 72,117 men whose spouses had incident dementia who were matched (1:4) based on birth year, sex, income, and urbanicity with 475,616 women and 288,468 men who did not have a spouse with dementia.The primary outcome was incident all-cause dementia, and secondary outcomes were Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Models were sequentially adjusted for number of children, healthcare utilization, and individuals’ and spouses’ baseline comorbidities (including psychiatric and cardiometabolic conditions).The median follow-up duration was 7 years for women and 5.5 years for men who had a spouse with dementia.TAKEAWAYIn fully adjusted models, compared with control individuals, women having a spouse with dementia had a significantly higher risk for all-cause dementia (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.74; 5-year absolute risk difference [ARD], 2.75 percentage points) as did their male counterparts (aHR, 1.69; 5-year ARD, 3.49 percentage points).Compared with control individuals, those having a spouse with Alzheimer’s disease had a significantly higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease (aHR, 1.74 in both women and men).Similarly, compared with control individuals, those having a spouse with vascular dementia had an increased risk for vascular dementia (aHR, 1.77 in women; 1.72 in men).Relative risks for all-cause dementia were more pronounced at younger ages and declined with advancing age. ARDs increased with age but were lower among individuals with higher income or more children.IN PRACTICE“These findings suggest dementia risk may extend to spouses, supporting a household-level approach to dementia risk assessment and family support,” the investigators wrote.SOURCEThe study was led by Shi-Heng Wang, PhD, National Center for Geriatrics and Welfare Research, National Health Research Institutes, Yunlin, Taiwan. It was published online on July 20 in JAMA Network Open.LIMITATIONSUse of claims data may have led to misclassification of dementia outcomes and did not allow for the capture of caregiving-related and shared household pathways. Marital status was identified through the beneficiary registry, which does not fully capture changes over time. Additionally, long-term absolute risk estimates may have been affected by competing mortality and model-based extrapolation.DISCLOSURESThe study was partly funded by the National Science and Technology Council and the National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan. The investigators reported no relevant conflicts of interest.This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.