Although the prevalence rate of dementia is higher overall in women over 65; this is due to a variety of factors — overall elderly age demographic prevalence, hormonal declines (circulating estrogens), and the presence of certain vascular related disorders, just to name a few. But what about the incidence of dementia in a male spouse as an association for the incidence of dementia in females — both of whom had no signs of the disorder initially?

A trial published in the latest Journal of the American Geriatrics Society shows that over 1000 patients (married couples in a single Utah county) were followed for a period of at least 12 years^[1]. Initially without the diagnosis of Alzheimer dementia, those caregiving wives developed dementia along with their husbands in 30 cases. Although the study did not specifically examine wives as caregivers using explicit criteria, most lived in the same space as the male spouse at the time of diagnosis. An interesting result that should spur more study in the gerontological (social scientific) realm of dementia treatment and incidence in the community. | LINK

1. All married couples were dementia-free at baseline in 1995 and were followed-up for an average of 12.6 years (median follow-up, 3.3 years) to monitor for incident dementia in husbands, wives, or both, according toDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised, diagnostic criteria. [↩]

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