# Marital Biography and Risk of Dementia in the United States

> **NIH NIH R03** · MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $74,532

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 With the rapid aging of the U.S. population, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias have
emerged as a serious public health problem. Identifying the risk/protective factors of dementia is
crucial in designing evidence-based interventions to reduce dementia risk in late life. Marital
relationships have long been recognized as one of the most important social relationships that
affect individuals’ well-being throughout adulthood. However, little is known about whether and
how marital relationships are related to dementia risk in late life. This study is designed to enrich
our understanding of how marital biography influences the risk of dementia among adults ages
65 years and older in the United States. Guided by the life course perspective, the project has
three specific aims.
AIM 1. Examine the associations between marital biography components and risk of
dementia in late life. We will examine whether and to what extent major components of marital
biography influence dementia risk over the 18-year period in the United States. We hypothesize
that marital instability and longer duration in unmarried states are associated with a higher risk
of dementia.
AIM 2: Identify the mechanisms linking marital biography and the risk of dementia in late
life. We will test four potential mechanisms that could explain the associations between
components of marital biography and the risk of dementia: 1) economic resources (e.g., income,
wealth, and access to health care), 2) psychosocial factors (e.g., social integration and
depression), 3) biomedical (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke), and 4) health
behaviors (e.g., smoking, drinking, and exercise). We hypothesize that the combination of these
four factors will account for a significant proportion of the differences in dementia risk among
people with different marital biographies.
Aim 3: Examine sex and race differences in the associations and mechanisms discussed
in Aims 1 and 2.
Data will be drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2016). Discrete-time hazard
models will be applied to predict dementia risk. The proposed project will provide the first in-
depth and systematic analysis of how marital biography influences the risk of dementia in late
life.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9928393
- **Project number:** 5R03AG062936-02
- **Recipient organization:** MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Zhenmei Zhang
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $74,532
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-15 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9928393

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9928393, Marital Biography and Risk of Dementia in the United States (5R03AG062936-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9928393. Licensed CC0.

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