Department of Consumer Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2018 Jul;26(7):778-787. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2018.03.013. Epub 2018 Mar 26.
This study investigated whether widowhood status has an effect on cognitive decline among older adults in the United States.
Longitudinal analysis of existing secondary data.
The 1996-2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study.
A total of 6,766 individuals (28,420 observations) aged 50 years and older who responded to all questions.
Widow/widower status, cognitive functioning score, and various covariates.
Growth-curve models show that after controlling for covariates, widowhood status was related to cognitive decline (95% CI: -0.8090, -0.4674). We also found a linear relationship between time since spousal loss and cognitive decline. Conditional upon spousal bereavement status, higher education and having at least one living sibling were found to be protective factors against cognitive decline.
Widowhood status accelerated cognitive decline over time among widowed older adults. Findings suggest that extra support is needed to monitor cognitive functioning for those experiencing widowhood.
本研究旨在调查美国丧偶状况是否会对老年人群的认知能力下降产生影响。
对现有二手数据进行纵向分析。
健康与退休研究的 1996-2012 年各波次。
共纳入 6766 名年龄在 50 岁及以上且回答了所有问题的个体（28420 个观察值）。
丧偶/鳏夫状况、认知功能评分以及各种协变量。
增长曲线模型显示，在控制协变量后，丧偶状况与认知能力下降相关（95%置信区间：-0.8090，-0.4674）。我们还发现丧偶时间与认知能力下降之间存在线性关系。在考虑配偶丧失状况的前提下，较高的受教育程度和至少有一个在世的兄弟姐妹被发现是对认知能力下降的保护因素。
丧偶状况使丧偶老年人群的认知能力随时间推移加速下降。研究结果表明，对于经历丧偶的人群，需要额外的支持来监测其认知功能。
