THE INFLUENCE OF SPOUSE COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT ON RESPONDENTS DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS - THE MODERATING ROLE OF MARITAL CLOSENESS

An earlier report documented that, in a community-dwelling sample of 3 17 older married couples, cognitive impairment in a wife,vas associate d with depressive symptoms in her husband (Moritz, Kasl, and Berkman, 1989). No similar effects were found for wives. Here we examine the ex tent to which marital closeness moderates the impact of a spouse's cog nitive impairment, the stability of influences over 3 years, and gende r differences in the associations. Analyses of covariance, controlling for respondent risk factors and potential confounders in the spouse, showed that marital closeness moderated the impact of a wife's cogniti ve impairment, with husbands in close marriages affected more strongly than husbands in less close marriages. These effects held over 3 year s. In addition, husbands became less depressed following the death of a severely impaired wife, whereas widowers whose wife had been unimpai red at baseline were more depressed. None of these effects were found for wives.