title: Preparatory studies to a population-based survey of suicide-bereaved parents in Sweden.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a need for evidence-based guidelines on how professionals should act following a suicide. In an effort to provide empiric knowledge, we designed a nationwide population-based study including suicide-bereaved parents.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the process from creating hypotheses through interviews to the development of a population-based questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used interviews, qualitative analysis and various means of validation to create a study-specific questionnaire to be used in a nonselected nationwide population of suicide-bereaved parents and a control population of nonbereaved (N = 2:1). The Swedish Register of Causes of Death and the Multigeneration Register were used to identify eligible individuals. All presumptive participants received a letter of invitation followed by a personal contact.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We developed a questionnaire covering the participants' perception of participation, their daily living, psychological morbidity, professional actions, and other experiences in immediate connection to the time before and after the suicide. Almost three out of four parents (bereaved = 666, nonbereaved = 377) responded to the questionnaire.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By involving parents early in the research process we were able to create a questionnaire that generated a high participation rate in a nationwide population-based study that might help us to answer our hypotheses about bereavement after suicide.
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Centre for Psychiatric Research and Education, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Sweden. pernilla.omerov@ki.se
authors.forename: Pernilla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Omerov
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Steineck
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Runeson
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Christensson
authors.forename: Ulrika
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kreicbergs
authors.forename: Rossana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pettersén
authors.forename: Birgitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rubenson
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skoogh
authors.forename: Ingela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rådestad
authors.forename: Ullakarin
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Nyberg
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001601:Bereavement; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden