Marriage may help lower dementia risk

Conclusions The general findings that marriage and having more social relationships seem to be linked to better health and wellbeing is in line with the results of much previous research. But there are several important things to keep in mind: Although the study followed people who didn't have dementia at the start of the study, it can't prove that marital status or the number of close relationships directly increased or decreased dementia risk. Biological, health, lifestyle and environmental factors may all influence a person's risk of dementia (particularly the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, which doesn't have an established cause). Even though the researchers have tried to adjust for different variables, it's still not possible to fully account for all factors or know whether they have an influence. Simply asking someone if they're married or not, or how many relationships they have, can't account for the nature and quality of these relationships. It's likely it's not just marital status that has an impact on health and wellbeing, but whether it's a happy and loving relationship. This type of study simplifies the complex nature of human relationships. Despite the large sample, only a very small proportion of the cohort developed dementia. This means any analysis of such a small sample may not produce reliable risk estimates. The ways dementia was assessed were mixed, and may not give a fully reliable set of cases meeting full diagnostic c...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Source Type: news