title: Aged parents' experiences during a critical illness trajectory and after the death of an adult child: a review of the literature.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Given the growing life expectancy, the likelihood increases that health-care providers are confronted with older people having an adult child with a life-limiting disease.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This literature review aimed to (1) explore the experiences of aged parents with regard to their position and role as a parent of an adult child with a life-limiting illness, (2) detect gaps in the existing literature and (3) make recommendations for future research.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature search of English articles, including both quantitative and qualitative designs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four electronic databases and the reference lists of included studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 19 studies (7 quantitative and 12 qualitative) were included. Few studies describe the experiences of older people whose adult child has cancer or has died of cancer. Existing studies are merely descriptive and give no concrete recommendations for health-care providers in daily practice. The studies suggest that aged parents carry deep burdens from the prospect of losing their adult child. Aged parents want to stay involved but need to reconfigure their parent role. As soon as the cancer diagnosis is disclosed, parents are confronted with a re-awakening of parental nurturing, which clashes with the autonomy of the adult child. Even after the adult child is deceased, older parents retain the image of themselves as parents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a need for more in-depth research to understand the lived experience of these parents and what health-care providers can do to assist them.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatrics, Ghent University Hospital, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. liesbeth.vanhumbeeck@ugent.be
authors.forename: Liesbeth
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Humbeeck
authors.forename: Ruth D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Piers
authors.forename: Sigrid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van Camp
authors.forename: Let
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dillen
authors.forename: Sofie T L
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Verhaeghe
authors.forename: Nele J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Van Den Noortgate
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D032721:Adult Children; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000401:mortality*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Adult children; aged; critical illness; death; grief; parents; review