London, Jan 23 (IANS): If your husband has one again forgotten the wedding anniversary date or your boyfriend has not left birthday wish on WhatsApp, take heart. Even researchers are puzzled why men forget most.

“It was surprising to see that men forget more than women. This has not been documented before,” said professor Jostein Holmen from Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

"It was also surprising to see that men are just as forgetful whether they are 30 or 60 years old. The results were unambiguous," he added.

Holmen and his team asked nine questions about how well people think they remember as part of a health study involving over 48,000 people.

The participants were asked how often they had problems remembering things; whether they had problems with remembering names and dates; if they could remember what they did one year ago and if they were able to remember details from conversations.

Men reported the most problems for eight out of nine questions.

Women have the same problems with remembering as men do, but to a lesser extent. Names and dates are also hardest to remember for women, said the results published in the journal BMC Psychology.

The study also shows that people who are highly educated forget less than those with less education.

People who suffer from anxiety or depression forget more than other people do. This is true for people of both sexes, the study added.

The researchers are now working on to see whether people who self-reported problems with remembering at a younger age are also at a higher risk of developing dementia.