updated 8:19 a.m. ET May 6, 2010
Being married to someone with dementia(痴呆) may sharply(急剧地) increase your own risk(风险) of developing the condition, a new study shows.
Utah(美国犹他州) researchers found that seniors(年长者) had six times the risk of developing dementia if they lived with a spouse who had been diagnosed(诊断) with the condition, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics(老人病学) Society. And the increased risk was substantially(充分地) higher for husbands than for wives.
"The good news is that most of the spouses did not develop dementia," said the study’s lead author, Maria Norton, an associate professor(副教授) in the department of Family, Consumer and Human Development at Utah State University, in Logan. "But this does alert(提醒) us to the increased risk for some of them. We need to be taking care of the caregiver and finding ways to maximize(使最大化) the positives of care giving."