Senior Health Care News - Spouse with Dementia Risk Factor for Alzheimer's

Senior Health Care News - A new study suggests that the spouses of persons with dementia have a significantly higher risk of getting dementia themselves.

The study followed over 1,200 couples for ten years. The results indicated that wives who were caring for husbands with dementia had four times the risk of developing dementia than the wives whose husbands did not have the disease.

Similarly, husbands providing care for wives with dementia were 12 times as likely to get dementia themselves than the men whose wives did not have dementia. The study was conducted by Utah State University.

"The amount of stress involved in caring for a spouse with dementia is tremendous," and stress has been proven a risk factor for dementia, explains Dr. Ralph Nixon, a psychiatrist at NYU.