Maternal bereavement: the heightened mortality of mothers after the death of a child.
Using a 9-year follow-up of 69,224 mothers aged 20-50 from the National Longitudinal Mortality Survey, we investigate whether there is heightened mortality of mothers after the death of a child. Results from Cox proportional hazard models indicate that the death of a child produces a statistically significant hazard ratio of 2.3. There is suggestive evidence that the heightened mortality is concentrated in the first two years after the death of a child. We find no difference in results based on mother's education or marital status, family size, the child's cause of death or the gender of the child.
Department of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology, 92 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA. javier.espinosa@rit.edu
Javier
J
Espinosa
William N
WN
Evans
D000328:Adult; D001601:Bereavement; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult