{"doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbaa202","title":"Same-Sex Couples and Cognitive Impairment: Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: We provide the first nationally representative population-based study of cognitive disparities among same-sex and different-sex couples in the United States. METHODS: We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016). The sample included 23,669 respondents (196 same-sex partners and 23,473 different-sex partners) aged 50 and older who contributed to 85,117 person-period records (496 from same-sex partners and 84,621 from different-sex partners). Cognitive impairment was assessed using the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Mixed-effects discrete-time hazard regression models were estimated to predict the odds of cognitive impairment. RESULTS: The estimated odds of cognitive impairment were 78% (p < .01) higher for same-sex partners than for different-sex partners. This disparity was mainly explained by differences in marital status and, to a much lesser extent, by differences in physical and mental health. Specifically, a significantly higher proportion of same-sex partners than different-sex partners were cohabiting rather than legally married (72.98% vs. 5.42% in the study sample), and cohabitors had a significantly higher risk of cognitive impairment than their married counterparts (odds ratio = 1.53, p < .001). DISCUSSION: The findings indicate that designing and implementing public policies and programs that work to eliminate societal homophobia, especially among older adults, is a critical step in reducing the elevated risk of cognitive impairment among older same-sex couples.","journal":"The Journals of Gerontology Series B","year":2020,"id":93978,"datarank":1.7257938246053173,"base_score":3.6888794541139363,"endowment":3.6888794541139363,"self_citation_contribution":0.5533319181170905,"citation_network_contribution":1.1724619064882267,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5533319181170905,"citer_contribution":1.1724619064882267,"corpus_percentile":87.8239344008664,"corpus_rank":1575,"citation_count":39,"citer_count":37,"citers_with_citation_signal":31,"citers_with_endowment":31,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":true,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8699,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":468925,"name":"Ning Hsieh","orcid":"0000-0002-8561-6765","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":468926,"name":"Zhenmei Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-5150-1505","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":468927,"name":"Yan Zhang","orcid":"0000-0001-9177-2732","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366900,"name":"Kenneth M. Langa","orcid":"0000-0002-2798-1836","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":468924,"name":"Hui Liu","orcid":"0000-0001-5519-148X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":58,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:32:04.778261Z","pmid":"33211882","pmcid":"PMC8499509","fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}