Is marriage linked to dementia? New study explains
Listen to article
Contrary to popular belief, marriage may be linked to a higher risk of dementia in older age in the United States, according to a new study by researchers at Florida State University, US.
The study, led by Selin Karakose and colleagues, tracked over 24,000 Americans with an average age of 72 for up to 18 years. Participants were divided into four groups: married, widowed, divorced, and never married.
'Unmarried individuals may have a lower risk of dementia compared to married adults,' the study's authors wrote. After adjusting for age and gender, the findings revealed that those who had never married were 40% less likely to develop dementia than married individuals. Widowed participants had a 27% lower risk, and divorced individuals had a 34% lower risk.
The results challenge previous research suggesting marriage offers protective benefits against cognitive decline. Earlier studies linked marriage to stronger immune systems, reduced stress, and greater social support—all factors thought to guard against dementia.
However, the new research, published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia, turns this assumption on its head. 'Contrary to expectations and challenging the commonly held belief that marriage is protective against cognitive decline and dementia, this study found that married older adults exhibited a higher risk of dementia compared to those never married, divorced, and widowed,' an expert commented.
The study does not offer a definitive explanation for the trend. Researchers suggest possible factors, such as smaller social networks among married individuals, increased caregiving-related stress, or delayed dementia diagnosis in unmarried people.
The authors cautioned that the study does not imply all married individuals are destined to develop dementia. Rather, it highlights that the relationship between marriage and cognitive health is complex and warrants further research.
Experts advise individuals to focus on building strong, supportive relationships and maintaining a healthy, low-stress lifestyle, regardless of marital status, to promote better brain health in later life.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
31-05-2025
- Business Recorder
US FDA approves Moderna's next-generation COVID vaccine for adults 65 or older
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Moderna's next-generation COVID-19 vaccine for everyone aged 65 and above, the company said on Saturday, the first endorsement since the regulator tightened requirements. The vaccine has also been approved for people aged 12 to 64 with at least one or more underlying risk factors defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Moderna said in a statement. The company said it expects to have the vaccine, called mNEXSPIKE, available for the 2025-2026 respiratory virus season. 'The FDA approval of our third product, mNEXSPIKE, adds an important new tool to help protect people at high risk of severe disease from COVID-19,' CEO Stephane Bancel said in the statement. The Department of Health and Human Services, under the leadership of long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is tightening regulatory scrutiny on vaccines. The FDA said on May 20 it planned to require drugmakers to test their COVID booster shots against an inert placebo in healthy adults under 65 for approval, effectively limiting them to older adults and those at risk of developing severe illness. The Moderna vaccine can be stored in refrigerators rather than freezers, to offer longer shelf life and make distribution easier, especially in developing countries where supply-chain issues could hamper vaccination drives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which Kennedy also oversees, said on Thursday that COVID vaccines remain an option for healthy children when parents and doctors agree that it is needed, stopping short of Kennedy's announcement days earlier that the agency would remove the shots from its immunization schedule. The CDC announcement eases investor concern to some extent, analysts say, as it keeps the existing framework for older adults and at-risk people who generally seek out the shots. FDA leaders have said 100 million to 200 million Americans would still be eligible for annual shots. Moderna is betting on its newer messenger RNA vaccines as it grapples with waning demand for its original COVID vaccine Spikevax and lower-than-expected uptake of its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine. The approval for mNEXSPIKE was based on late-stage trial data, which showed the shot was not inferior in efficacy compared to Spikevax in individuals aged 12 years and older. The shot also showed superior efficacy compared to Spikevax in adults 18 years of age and older in the study. Kennedy has kickstarted a major overhaul of health departments, laying off thousands of employees to align with President Donald Trump's goal of dramatically shrinking the federal government. This has further ignited worries about potential disruptions to the regulatory review of treatments and vaccines. The CDC's outside panel of vaccine experts in April discussed recommending the booster shots only for populations at risk of severe COVID-19 for the upcoming immunization campaign. The FDA approved Novavax's COVID vaccine Nuvaxovid this month, limiting its use to older adults and people over the age of 12 with conditions that put them at risk due to the illness. Conditions that constitute additional risk range from illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease to behaviors like physical inactivity and substance abuse, according to the CDC. While Moderna's shots, as well as Pfizer-BioNTech's Comirnaty, are mRNA-based, Novavax's vaccine is protein-based and takes longer to manufacture. Moderna this month withdrew an application seeking approval for its flu-and-COVID combination vaccine candidate to wait for efficacy data from a late-stage trial of its influenza shot.
Express Tribune
31-05-2025
- Express Tribune
CDC updates COVID vaccine guidance, open option for healthy children
Moderna logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, May 3, 2022. Photo: REUTERS Listen to article The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said COVID-19 vaccines remain an option for healthy children when parents and doctors agree that it is needed, stopping short of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s announcement that the agency would remove the shots from its immunisation schedule. 🇺🇲 #BREAKING: The CDC kept Covid shots on an updated vaccination schedule for children, days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said they would be taken off. Source: the New York Times — Ali (@iamsakibali1) May 30, 2025 In a schedule published late on Thursday, the CDC said any COVID vaccination in healthy children aged 6 months to 17 years should follow "shared clinical decision-making" between a child's parents and their healthcare provider. Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic who oversees the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, had said on Tuesday the recommendations would be dropped. "As of today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunisation schedule," Kennedy said in a video posted on the X platform. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said there was no contradiction between Kennedy's statement and the CDC schedule, which no longer provides a broad recommendation for healthy children. Kennedy's announcement prompted criticism from medical experts who said the health secretary circumvented the government's decision-making process on vaccines and could prevent health insurance coverage for COVID shots to vulnerable Americans. The Infectious Diseases Society of America said on Tuesday that removing the recommendation "does the opposite of what Americans have been asking for when it comes to their health — it takes away choices and will negatively impact them." It added infants and children may "develop severe disease and may suffer from prolonged symptoms due to long COVID, which can negatively impact their development." Nearly 1,900 children up to 18 years of age died of COVID in the US, according to CDCupdated in 2023. The makers of COVID vaccines available in the US — Pfizer,Moderna and Novavax — did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Traditionally, the CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunisation Practices would meet and vote on changes to the immunization schedule or recommendations on who should get vaccines before the agency's director made a final call. The committee had not voted on the changes announced by Kennedy. Last week, the FDA said it plans to require new clinical trials for approval of annual COVID boosters for healthy Americans under 65, effectively timing them to older adults and those at risk of developing severe illness. Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington, Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru and Michele Gershberg in New York; Editing by Alan Barona, Shounak Dasgupta and William Mallard
Express Tribune
21-05-2025
- Express Tribune
US limits Covid boosters to over-65s or those at high risk
The United States will limit Covid-19 boosters to people over 65 or those at risk of serious illness, while requiring vaccine makers to run fresh clinical trials before offering shots to younger and healthier individuals, officials said Tuesday. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Food and Drug Administration's Vinayak Prasad and Commissioner Martin Makary framed the policy shift as "evidence-based" and would align the United States more closely with guidance in Europe. But it comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, pushes to remake federal public health policy. Kennedy previously led a nonprofit that was critical of immunization programs, and during the pandemic petitioned the FDA to revoke Covid vaccine authorizations, citing rare side effects including heart inflammation. Prasad and Makary praised the initial Covid-19 vaccine rollout as "a major scientific, medical, and regulatory accomplishment," but argued that the benefits of repeated boosters for low-risk individuals are uncertain. They criticized the US approach of recommending boosters for all adults regardless of age or health status, calling it a "one-size-fits-all" model based on the mistaken belief that Americans couldn't handle more nuanced, risk-based advice. Rather than building public trust, they wrote, it had backfired — fueling vaccine hesitancy that has spilled over into skepticism toward childhood shots, including those for measles. The FDA said it would rely on lab test results to approve boosters for people who are over 65, or over six months old with at least one underlying condition. But for healthy individuals between six months and 64 years, regulators will now require data from randomized trials. "We simply don't know whether a healthy 52-year-old woman with a normal BMI (body mass index) who has had Covid-19 three times and has received six previous doses of a Covid-19 vaccine will benefit from the seventh dose," they wrote. Some infectious disease experts welcomed the shift. Amesh Adalja of Johns Hopkins University said it matched with the approach taken by other countries in a population that already carries significant immunity. "For lower-risk individuals, the goal has always been less clear, as protection against infection is transient and they don't have a high risk of severe disease," he told AFP. But others voiced concern about the practical consequences. Paul Offit, a leading vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said it could limit access for people who still want boosters. "Any use, say in a healthy 35-year-old, would be considered off-label, and you wonder whether an insurance company would pay for it," he told AFP. Under the revised framework, companies like Pfizer and Moderna will be encouraged to test updated boosters in adults aged 50 to 64. These studies should measure whether the vaccines reduce symptomatic infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Rather than comparing new shots to earlier formulations, Prasad and Makary suggested placebo-controlled trials -- with saline as the comparator -- to better evaluate both benefit and potential side effects. The proposal, first floated by Kennedy earlier this month, has proved divisive. Critics argue that using a placebo -- when authorized vaccines already exist -- could expose participants to unnecessary harm. "Imagine if there was a death or two in the placebo group," said Offit. "I don't see how you conscience that." Supporters of continued Covid-19 boosters often draw parallels to annual flu shots. AFp
