Widowhood status accelerated cognitive decline over time among widowed older adults, a recent study found. These findings suggest that extra support is needed to monitor cognitive functioning for those experiencing widowhood. In a longitudinal analysis of existing secondary data, researchers evaluated data from the 1996–2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Participants included 6,766 individuals (28,420 observations) aged ≥50 who responded to all questions. They found:

• Results from growth-curve models show that after controlling for covariates, widowhood status was related to cognitive decline.
• There was also a linear relationship between time since spousal loss and cognitive decline.
• Conditional upon spousal bereavement status, higher education and having at least 1 living sibling were found to be protective factors against cognitive decline.