Broken Heart: A Statistical Study of Increased Mortality among Widowers

Parkes, Colin Murray; Benjamin, B.; Fitzgerald, Ryan

doi:10.1136/bmj.1.5646.740

Cited by 580 publications

(235 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…al., 1998;Glaser et al, 2000;Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 1996;Vedhara et al, 1999a) may be driven, at least in part, by the effects of care-giving on marital quality and satisfaction, although more specific measurement of stressful life events and marital parameters would be necessary to support this speculation. Whatever the case, our findings resonate with the broad consensus that both marriage (Gordon and Rosenthal, 1995;House et al, 1988;Johnson, Backlund, Sorlie & Loveless, 2000;Verbrugge, 1979), and marital satisfaction (Coyne and DeLongis, 1986;Kiecolt-Glaser and Newton, 2001;Robles and Kiecolt-Glaser, 2003) are beneficial for health and bereavement is detrimental to health (Bowling, 1994;Manor and Eisenbach, 2003;Parkes, Benjamin & Fitzgerald, 1969). …”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Bereavement and marriage are associated with antibody response to influenza vaccination in the elderly

Phillips

Carroll

Burns

et al. 2006

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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Stressful life events exposure including bereavement, an event commonly experienced by elderly people, social support, marital status and satisfaction were examined in relation to antibody response to the annual trivalent influenza vaccination in an elderly community sample (N = 184). Antibody response was assessed at baseline, and at one and 12 months following vaccination. Taking into account baseline antibody titer, overall life events exposure and social support were not associated with response to any of the influenza strains.However, bereavement in the year prior to vaccination was negatively associated with the one-month response to the A/Panama and B/Shangdong strains. Being married and having higher marital satisfaction was also associated with higher peak responses to the A/Panama influenza strain at one month. The positive association between marital satisfaction and A/Panama response was particularly evident in the younger half of the married sample. These associations largely withstood adjustment for potential confounders. Thus, in the elderly, peak antibody response was associated with bereavement and marriage, and not the more general factors, life events and social support, related to antibody response in student samples.This suggests the importance of taking a life course approach to examining relationships between psychosocial factors and immunity, and that interventions to modify the impact of these factors should address those most salient for each age group.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Bereavement and marriage are associated with antibody response to influenza vaccination in the elderly

Phillips

Carroll

Burns

et al. 2006

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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“…among males (Parkes et al, 1969) and for diseases other than cancer (Gove, 1973;Susser, 1981;Joseph and Syme, 1982). In prospective studies, there has not been a clear excess in total mortality among the widowed (Young et al, 1963: Rees andLutkins, 1967;Ward, 1976;Helsing and Szklo, 1981;Mellstr0m et al, 1982), and for cancer prospective studies have been inconclusive.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The married are reported to be mentally and physically healthier (Coombs, 1991), and marriage may particularly have psychological effects, which provide the individual with social support (Mastekaasa, 1993). Lower mortality has been reported for married persons (Kraus and Lilienfeld, 1959;Joseph and Syme, 1982), but this may be particularly true for men (Young et al, 1963, Rees andLutkins, 1967;Parkes et al, 1969;Ward, 1976;Jacobs and Ostfeld, 1977;Bowling, 1987), and for age groups younger than 60 years (Jacobs and Ostfeld, 1977;Seeman et al, 1987). In most studies, however, there has been no clear association between marital status and survival among cancer patients (Jacobs and Ostfeld, 1977;Koskenvuo et al, 1979, Mellstr0m et al, 1982Jones and Goldblatt, 1986;Kaprio et al, 1987).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Widowhood and divorce in relation to overall survival among middle-aged Norwegian women with cancer

Kvikstad

Vatten²,

Tretli³

1995

Br J Cancer

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Summanr The aim of the study was to examine the relations between widowhood and divorce and overall surVival among women with cancer. All Norwegian women born between 1935 and 1954, and diagnosed with cancer between 1966 and 1990, were followed up until 1991. In all, 14 231 cases were followed up for a median length of approximately 4.5 years (mean = 6 years), and 4311 women died during follow-up. In addition to overall cancer, separate analyses have been made for cancer at specific sites. Widows had a risk of dying which was nearly identical to that of married women for all sites except colorectal cancer, for which widows had a 2-fold increased death rate compared with married women. Divorced women had an overall increased hazard ratio of 1.17 (95% Cl 1.07-1.27), which was confined to cancer of the breast, lung and cervix. With few clear exceptions women with children had a better survival than nulliparous women (overall hazard ratio=0.80. 95% CI 0.74-0.87).

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“…The widowhood effect has been found in bereaved men and women of all ages around the world, using cross-sectional and longitudinal data, with and without covariate controls, and diverse statistical methodologies (Helsing, Comstock, & Szklo, 1982;Hu & Goldman, 1990;Kraus & Lilienfeld, 1959;Lillard & Waite, 1995;Parkes, Benjamin, & Fitzgerald, 1969). Recent longitudinal studies put the long-term excess risk of death associated with widowhood compared to marriage at around 15%, net of controls.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widowhood and mortality among the elderly: The modifying role of neighborhood concentration of widowed individuals

Subramanian

Elwert

Christakis

2008

Social Science & Medicine

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The effect of death of a spouse on the mortality of the survivor (the "widowhood effect") is wellestablished. We investigated how the effect of widowhood on mortality depends on the neighborhood concentration of widowed individuals in the United States. We developed a large, nationally representative, and longitudinal dataset from Medicare claims and other data sources characterizing 200,000 elderly couples, with nine years of follow-up (1993-2002), and estimated multilevel grouped discrete-time hazard models. In neighborhoods with a low concentration of widowed individuals, widowhood increased the odds of death for men by 22% and for women by 17%, compared to 17% for men, and 15% for women in neighborhoods with a high concentration of widowed individuals. Our findings suggest that neighborhood structural contexts -that provide opportunities for interacting with others and favoring new social engagements -could be potential modifiers of the widowhood effects and as such requires more systematic consideration in future research of widowhood effects on well-being and mortality.

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Broken Heart: A Statistical Study of Increased Mortality among Widowers

Cited by 580 publications

References 10 publications

Bereavement and marriage are associated with antibody response to influenza vaccination in the elderly

Bereavement and marriage are associated with antibody response to influenza vaccination in the elderly

Widowhood and divorce in relation to overall survival among middle-aged Norwegian women with cancer

Widowhood and mortality among the elderly: The modifying role of neighborhood concentration of widowed individuals

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