Untimely death

UK researchers have analyzed a random sample of national death registrations from the years 1971 to 2006 and found that parents who lose a new baby are themselves at high risk of dying prematurely.

The study, published online in the journal BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, examined deaths among parents who had been bereaved within the first year of a child's life, or whose child was stillborn.

They found that bereaved parents were between two and over four times likelier to die or become widowed in the first 15 years after the child's death, compared with parents who had not been bereaved.

Dr. Mairi Harper of the University of York, the study's lead author, said a similar phenomenon had previously been observed among people who lost a spouse or partner.

The researchers examined a 35 year time period but noticed no significant differences between rates observed during the 70s and 90s, for instance.

"What we found was that the first 10 years following the bereavement was the time when most of the excess mortality took place."

Both parents at risk

According to the research, bereaved mothers in England and Wales were over four times more likely to die prematurely, and in Scotland the rate was two times higher than for parents whose child had survived beyond its first year.

The study indicates the risk lessened over time but was still about 50 percent higher after 25 years - and Harper said overall, those mortality rates were consistent across the United Kingdom.

Harper's team, which included researchers from the University of Stirling in Scotland, initially predicted that mothers would be at a higher risk of premature death. Instead, their findings suggested that mortality rates were roughly equal between both mothers and fathers.

"That was really not what we expected," Harper told Deutsche Welle.

Those results call the historical perception that fathers grieve less than mothers into question.

"Their suffering does seem to be every bit as much as the mothers'," the author said.

Root causes

The data shed no light on possible reasons for the premature deaths. But the authors suggested there could be a link with alcohol abuse or suicide among bereaved parents.

"We need to do a bit more work to be able to establish whether that is happening," Harper said.

It is also possible that stillbirths and infant deaths were common among parents whose own health was poor.

"We have to be cautious about what we can claim from these results," she added. "Because what we can't determine is whether these parents had an underlying health condition before the baby was born."

Future research

Harper said future studies would focus on using scientific research methods to establish what happens to parents when they are confronted with the loss of a child.

"We need to find out more about the experience," she said.

Though the latest paper focused on mothers and fathers who had lost a child within the first year of its life, Harper plans to look at other samples that include parents who have lost adult children, as well.

The results of that research could shed new light on bereavement support in the UK, which is still largely provided by voluntary organizations over the long-term.

"We're not entirely sure whether we're offering enough bereavement support," she said, "and the right kind of bereavement support."

Author: Amanda Price (AFP)
Editor: Zulfikar Abbany