| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Predictors of mortality among a national sample of elderly widowed people
— analysis of 28-year mortality rates | | Author(s) | Ann Bowling |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 38, no 5, September 2009 |
| Pages | pp 527-530 |
| Source | http://www.ageing.oxfordjournals.org |
| Keywords | Death ; Bereavement ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Widows ; Widowers ; Longitudinal surveys ; England. |
| Annotation | The original home interview survey of a random sample of (then recently) bereaved widowed people was conducted in 1985. This paper identifies predictors of mortality for this English national sample 28 years post-baseline interview. Measurements included physical, psychological, social, and socio-economic status and circumstances. Results showed that excess risk of mortality, which had been noted up to six months post bereavement among males aged 75+, had disappeared. In contrast to the author's findings up to 13 years post-bereavement in 1994, neither psycho-social factors, social circumstances nor social class independently predicted differentials in mortality when analysed up to 28 years post-bereavement. The most significant, independent predictors, up to the 28-year term, were, as would be expected, male sex, older age, poorer physical functioning, and expressed 'relief at the death of the spouse'. When the sample was split by duration of widow(er)hood, male sex and older age retained significance. The increasing frailty of the sample overall, and reduced statistical power in split-sample analyses, may explain the loss of significance of physical functioning and 'expressed relief at the death' in the split-sample results. The psycho-social risk factors for mortality after bereavement reduce over time, although further examination of expressed relief would be worthwhile. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-091207204 A |
| Classmark | CW: DW: F: SP: SPA: 3J: 82 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|