title: Mortality after the death of a spouse in Norway.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies on mortality of widowed individuals have produced varying estimates of mortality after the death of a spouse. This variation is because of the various data types used and methodologies applied, as well as to the failure to account for sources of bias.
  
  
  METHODS
  We followed all married individuals in Norway (1,801,456 individuals) for 32 years, and information on marital status and death was collected for use in a new application of survival analysis in this field of research.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We compared mortality of widowed individuals with that of married individuals. Widowed men and women had hazard ratios of 1.34 (95% confidence interval 1.31, 1.36) and 1.29 (1.26, 1.31), respectively, for the first year after spousal death. For the same period, values were highest in ages 60-64 years with 1.78 (1.57, 1.98) in men and 1.50 (1.35, 1.65) in women. Values dropped gradually with age and more rapidly in men than women to a low for ages 85-89 years of 1.24 (1.19, 1.29) in men and 1.25 (1.20, 1.31) in women. The risk was much higher 1 to 7 days after spousal death (1.69 [1.49, 1.88] in men and 1.76 [1.56, 1.96] in women), then it dropped during the first year and from then on remained stable to year 10, which was the last year considered.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A considerable excess mortality risk was observed in widowed men and women from immediately after the loss of a spouse and for the next 10 years.
authors.affiliation: From the aDepartment of Mathematics and Statistics, and bDepartment of Community Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Elinor
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ytterstad
authors.forename: Tormod
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brenn
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D017805:Widowhood / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*