Table 1 Data extraction of included articles
Author, Year Country | Study Design, Funding | Sample Size; %female | Exposure(s) measured | Outcome(s) measured | Covariates | Use of marital status | Summary of findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liao & Scholes, 2017 England | Longitudinal Funding: Public | 10 241 53.3% | Positive social support: measured with three items asking about how much members of one’s social network understand the way they feel, can be relied on, and can open up to them. | Memory: measured with time orientation, verbal learning (immediate and delayed recall), and prospective memory tasks. | Age, sex, socioeconomic status (education and wealth), health factors, mobility limitations, depressive symptoms | Modifier | For men, higher between-persons positive social support from a spouse/partner was associated with slower memory decline. For women, higher between-persons positive social support from a spouse/partner was associated with lower baseline memory. |
Scholes & Liao, 2022 England | Longitudinal Funding: Public | 10 109 53% | Social support: measured with three items asking how much members of one’s social network understand the way they feel, can be relied on, and can open up to them – completed separately for spouse/partner, children, other family, and friends. | Verbal memory: measured using immediate and delayed word recall tasks. | Age, wealth, education, smoking and alcohol consumption, physical activity, social participation, physical functioning, depressive symptoms | Modifier | No significant associations were found between spousal support and baseline memory or its rate of change. |
Windsor et al., 2014 Australia | Longitudinal Funding: Public & Private | 1618 49.3% | Positive social exchanges: measured with five items asking about emotional closeness and spouse dependability. | Episodic memory: measured using the California Verbal Learning Test. Working memory: measured using the digits backward subtest of the WMS. | Age, sex, education, physical functioning, depressive symptoms | Modifier | No significant associations were found between positive spouse exchanges and episodic or working memory. |
Zahodne et al., 2019 USA | Longitudinal Funding: Public | 10 390 59.68% | Marital status: dichotomous (married/partnered vs. not married/partnered). Social support: measured with three items asking how much members of one’s social network understand the way they feel, can be relied on, and can open up to them – completed separately for spouse, children, family, and friends. | Episodic memory: measured with a variant of the CERAD list learning task that assesses immediate and delayed recall. | Age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, baseline assessment wave, depression, physical health/chronic health conditions, and self- rated health | Exposure Modifier | Being partnered and having less social support were each independently associated with higher initial memory. Having a partner was also associated with slower memory decline. Spousal support was not significantly associated with initial memory or subsequent memory change. |