BACKGROUND The loss of a spouse has been found to have a negative effect on physical and mental health and leads to increased mortality. Whether conjugal bereavement also affects memory functioning has largely been unexamined. The present study investigates the effect of widowhood on memory functioning in older persons. METHOD The sample consisted of 474 married women and 690 married men aged...

OBJECTIVE Spouse caregivers have an increased risk of mental and physical illness during caregiving and widowhood. The authors sought to evaluate whether partners of an ill spouse have a higher likelihood of developing mental health or substance abuse (MHSA) disorders than partners who have healthy spouses, accounting for both spousal illness and death. METHODS The authors used Medicare claim...

BACKGROUND Disclosure of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity by infected women is crucial in HIV control. To determine the rates, patterns, effects, and determinants of disclosure of status among HIV-positive women in Lagos, Nigeria. METHODS This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Simple random sampling method was used to select 364 HIV-positive women accessing care in HIV...

This study examines the relationship between childhood abuse and partner abuse among a sample of predominantly African-American and Hispanic women, who were patients in methadone clinics in Harlem and the South Bronx. A structured questionnaire addressing demographics, psychosocial and physical health characteristics, depression, childhood abuse, and domestic violence was administered to 151 wo...

The health oftwo people connected by a social tie may be interdependent. The impact of the death of one spouse on the risk of death of the other, known as the widow/er effect, is a classic example (Parkes and Fitzgerald 1969; Lillard and Waite 1995; Martikainen and Valkonen 1996a; and Schaefer, Quesenberry, and Soora 1995). The impact of illness in one spouse on the risk of ill health or death ...

Living alone is associated with adverse outcomes after acute coronary syndromes (ACS). One potential mediator of the relation between partner status and outcomes after ACS is physical activity. To evaluate the association of partner status with physical activity after ACS, data from 107 participants enrolled in the Prescription Use, Lifestyle, and Stress Evaluation (PULSE) study, a prospective ...

OBJECTIVES To explore the effects of a discrepancy between actual and preferred living arrangements on the relationship between living arrangements and life satisfaction among the elderly in China. METHODS Secondary analysis of the 2005 dataset of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey was performed. A binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the relationship between li...