title: Greater risk of dementia when spouse has dementia? The Cache County study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effects of caring for a spouse with dementia on the caregiver's risk for incident dementia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Population-based study of incident dementia in spouses of persons with dementia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rural county in northern Utah.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two thousand four hundred forty-two subjects (1,221 married couples) aged 65 and older.
  
  
  METHODS
  Incident dementia was diagnosed in 255 subjects, with onset defined as age when subject met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised, criteria for dementia. Cox proportional hazards regression tested the effect of time-dependent exposure to dementia in one's spouse, adjusted for potential confounders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A subject whose spouse experienced incident dementia onset had a six times greater risk for incident dementia as subjects whose spouses were dementia free (hazard rate ratio (HRR)=6.0, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.2-16.2, P<.001). In sex-specific analyses, husbands had higher risks (HRR=11.9, 95% CI=1.7-85.5, P=.01) than wives (HRR=3.7, 95% CI=1.2-11.6, P=.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The chronic and often severe stress associated with dementia caregiving may exert substantial risk for the development of dementia in spouse caregivers. Additional (not mutually exclusive) explanations for findings are discussed.
authors: Department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA. maria.norton@usu.edu
authors: Maria C
authors: MC
authors: Norton
authors: Ken R
authors: KR
authors: Smith
authors: Truls
authors: T
authors: Østbye
authors: JoAnn T
authors: JT
authors: Tschanz
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Corcoran
authors: Sarah
authors: S
authors: Schwartz
authors: Kathleen W
authors: KW
authors: Piercy
authors: Peter V
authors: PV
authors: Rabins
authors: David C
authors: DC
authors: Steffens
authors: Ingmar
authors: I
authors: Skoog
authors: John C S
authors: JC
authors: Breitner
authors: Kathleen A
authors: KA
authors: Welsh-Bohmer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D018454:Spouses; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014589:Utah / Q000453:epidemiology; D017805:Widowhood