Bereavement and cancer: some data on deaths of spouses from the longitudinal study of Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.

Jones, David R.; Goldblatt, Peter; Leon, DA

doi:10.1136/bmj.289.6443.461

Cited by 82 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Information bias is also unlikely; the study groups were established and parenthood determined before the files were searched for evidence of cancer in the parents, and the study relied on population registers that are kept for administrative purposes. Most interestingly, our finding of an absence of association between a stressful event and cancer incidence is in line with the result of other studies that relied only on information obtained from population-based registers (Jones et al, 1984;Ewertz, 1986;Kvikstad et al, 1994). In a short-term follow-up study of a 1% random sample of the 1971 census population in England and Wales, Jones et al (1984) found little evidence of an increase in the number of registrations of cancer after the death of a spouse and only a slight suggestion of increased mortality from cancer.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Most interestingly, our finding of an absence of association between a stressful event and cancer incidence is in line with the result of other studies that relied only on information obtained from population-based registers (Jones et al, 1984;Ewertz, 1986;Kvikstad et al, 1994). In a short-term follow-up study of a 1% random sample of the 1971 census population in England and Wales, Jones et al (1984) found little evidence of an increase in the number of registrations of cancer after the death of a spouse and only a slight suggestion of increased mortality from cancer. Similarly, a Danish study of 1782 breast cancer cases and 1738 control subjects found no substantial difference in the distribution of marital status of spouses of cases and controls notified to the national central population register before the breast cancer diagnosis (Ewertz, 1986).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

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Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Johansen

Olsen²

1997

Br J Cancer

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Summary Psychological stress has been claimed to contribute to the onset of cancer and to increase mortality from a number of nonmalignant diseases. We investigated the effect of a genuine psychological stressor, i.e. cancer in a child, on the incidence of cancer and mortality from non-malignant diseases of 11 231 parents in a Danish nationwide population-based study. The children were identified from records in the Danish Cancer Registry for the period 1943-85; their parents were identified from population registers. Overall, 1665 parental malignancies were diagnosed from the date the cancer of the child was reported until 1992, compared with 1702 expected from national incidence rates, yielding standardized incidence ratios of 1.0 (95% confidence interval, 0.9-1.0) for all parents, 1.0 for mothers and 1.0 for fathers. No statistically significant deviation of the relative risk from unity was seen for any period of follow-up after the stressful event, and no excess risk was seen for any particular type of cancer. Moreover, a total of 2137 parental deaths were observed over the period 1974-92, compared with 2333 expected from national mortality rates, giving an overall standardized mortality ratio of 0.9 (range 0.9-1.0). No excess mortality was seen from causes associated with allergic illness, autoimmune conditions, chronic illness or changes in behaviour. Our data provide no support for the hypothesis of an association between psychological stress and the incidence of cancer or mortality from nonmalignant diseases. We conclude that the human organism is highly adaptable, even to extreme psychological stress.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Johansen

Olsen²

1997

Br J Cancer

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“…As found in previous studies, 10,14,27 we found that bereavement had no significant effect on overall cancer incidence. (One study 13 reported a moderate effect for conjugal loss in men under the age of 74, but follow-up was too brief to ascertain incidence.)…”

Section: Incidencesupporting

confidence: 73%

“…26 The research advantages of examining parental bereavement resulting from war are manifold. First, there is a smaller probability of confounding by variables related to the loss or the environment than in studies of conjugal bereavement, 13,27 cancer in one's child, 14 or divorce. 9 Second, the status of the bereaved parent never ceases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cancer incidence and survival following bereavement

Levav

Kohn²,

Iscovich³

et al. 2000

Am J Public Health

106

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A B S T R A C TObjectives. This study investigated the effect of parental bereavement on cancer incidence and survival.Methods. A cohort of 6284 Jewish Israelis who lost an adult son in the Yom Kippur War or in an accident between 1970 and 1977 was followed for 20 years. We compared the incidence of cancer in this cohort with that among nonbereaved members of the population by logistic regression analysis. The survival of bereaved parents with cancer was compared with that of matched controls with cancer.Results. Increased incidence was found for lymphatic and hematopoietic malignancies among the parents of accident victims (odds ratio [OR]=2.01; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.30, 3.11) and among war-bereaved parents (OR=1.47; 95% CI = 1.13, 1.92), as well as for melanomas (OR = 4.62 [95% CI = 1.93,11.06] and 1.71 [95% CI = 1.06, 2.76], respectively). Accident-bereaved parents also had an increased risk of respiratory cancer (OR=1.50; 95% CI=1.07, 2.11). The survival study showed that the risk of death was increased by bereavement if the cancer had been diagnosed before the loss, but not after.Conclusions. This study showed an effect of stress on the incidence of malignancies for selected sites and accelerated demise among parents bereaved following a diagnosis of cancer, but not among those bereaved before such a di-

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“…For other causes of death, excess mortality was observed only for women during the first two months after bereavement (SMR 223). 16 The causes of death were not analyzed in enough detail to distinguish between deaths due to a common event affecting both spouses and deaths from independent causes to which bereavement may have contributed, but a substantial excess of deaths (16 actual as opposed to 7.2 expected) occurred in women whose spouses died of violent causes;'6 a similar pattern was found in men.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Mortality after bereavement: a prospective study of 95,647 widowed persons.

Kaprio¹,

Koskenvuo²,

Rita³

1987

Am J Public Health

340

166

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The mortality of 95,647 persons, widowed during 1972-76 and identified by linking the Finnish Population Register and cause-of-death files, was followed up to the end of 1976. A total of 7,635 deaths during 225,251 person-years of experience were observed. Cause-specific standardized mortality ratios by time after bereavement were computed. The highest relative mortality risk was found immediately after bereavement. For all natural causes, mortality during the first week was over two-fold compared to expected rates. The relative risk was larger for ischemic heart disease (RR = 2.3 for men, and RR = 3.5 for women), an effect found in all age

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Bereavement and cancer: some data on deaths of spouses from the longitudinal study of Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.

Cited by 82 publications

References 16 publications

Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Cancer incidence and survival following bereavement

Mortality after bereavement: a prospective study of 95,647 widowed persons.

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