Objective: The death of a child is undoubtedly the most arduous encounter for a mother in her lifetime, and it elicits numerous psychological detriments. Specifically, the death of a child resulting ...from cancer carries its own set of challenges. Analyzing the lived experience of these mothers can serve as a means to identify and comprehend their grief, thus becoming the foundation for efficacious interventions. Consequently, the objective of the present investigation was to scrutinize the lived experiences of grieving mothers whose children had succumbed to cancer. Methods: The current research was conducted utilizing a qualitative and phenomenological approach. The sampling technique employed was purposive, encompassing a maximum variation sampling. The study included a total of 13 bereaved mothers residing in Yazd city, who had lost their children to cancer. The methodology employed for data collection involved semi-structured interviews. Results: Subsequent to conducting the interviews and documenting them, each recorded session was transcribed and examined utilizing Colaizzi's method. This process yielded six primary themes and twenty-four secondary themes through the analysis of the data. The primary themes comprised emotional experience, physical experience, cognitive experience, challenging experience, the meaning of life, and avoidance. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the nature of the grief experienced by mothers, and these themes have the potential to facilitate effective interventions aimed at mitigating the symptoms of grief.
Abstract
Aims
The role of psychological stress in the aetiology of atrial fibrillation (AF) is unclear. The death of a child is one of the most severe sources of stress. We aimed to investigate ...whether the death of a child is associated with an increased risk of AF.
Methods and results
We studied parents with children born during 1973–2014 included the Swedish Medical Birth Register (n = 3 924 237). Information on death of a child, AF and socioeconomic, lifestyle and health-related covariates was obtained through linkage to nationwide population and health registers. We examined the link between death of a child and AF risk using Poisson regression. Parents who lost a child had a 15% higher risk of AF than unexposed parents incidence rate ratio (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.15 (1.10–1.20). An increased risk of AF was observed not only if the child died due to cardiovascular causes IRR (95% CI): 1.35 (1.17–1.56), but also in case of deaths due to other natural IRR (95% CI): 1.15 (1.09–1.21) or unnatural IRR (95% CI): 1.10 (1.02–1.19) causes. The risk of AF was highest in the 1st week after the loss IRR (95% CI): 2.87 (1.44–5.75) and remained 10–40% elevated on the long term.
Conclusions
Death of a child was associated with a modestly increased risk of AF. Our finding that an increased risk was observed also after loss of a child due to unnatural deaths suggests that stress-related mechanisms may also be implicated in the development of AF.
The death of a child is a traumatic stressor that takes a toll on the health of parents. This study examined long-term impacts of the death of a child on the risk of early mortality in bereaved ...parents. In a follow-up analysis, a twin subsample was analyzed to examine potential genetic confounding.
We analyzed data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. The primary sample consists of two groups of MIDUS 2 participants (2004–06); (1) parents who experienced the death of a child prior to MIDUS 2 (n = 451) and (2) comparison parents who had not experienced death of any children (n = 1804) (mean age = 63). We also analyzed 52 twin pairs in which one twin experienced the death of a child and 271 twin pairs in which both twins had all living children. Mortality status of parents was assessed in 2017.
Parents who had experienced the death of a child had a 32% higher likelihood of early mortality (defined as dying earlier than life expectancy) than their peers who did not have any deceased children, and they were more likely to die of heart disease. Analyses of the twin subsample revealed significantly lower concordance for early mortality among the pairs with a bereaved twin than among control twins, consistent with non-genetic effects.
The findings suggest that the death of a child has lasting impacts on the risk of early mortality in bereaved parents. This study provides the first U.S. estimate of bereavement effects on mortality extending through the parents' full life course, with significant public health implications. In addition, analysis of concordance of early death rates in the twin subsample suggests the impact on mortality of parental bereavement, net of genetic factors.
•32% higher rate of mortality in bereaved parents than non-bereaved parents.•Parental mortality effect confirmed in twin sample.•Highest death rates from heart disease in bereaved parents.
Aims
We aimed to investigate whether the death of a child, one of the most severe stressors, is associated with the risk of heart failure (HF).
Methods and results
We conducted a population‐based ...cohort study involving parents of live‐born children recorded in the Danish and Swedish Medical Birth Registers during 1973–2016 and 1973–2014, respectively (n = 6 717 349). We retrieved information on child death, HF diagnosis and sociodemographic characteristics of the parents from several nationwide registries. We performed Poisson regression models to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for HF in relation to bereavement. A total of 129 829 (1.9%) parents lost at least one child during the follow‐up. Bereaved parents had a 35% higher risk of HF than the non‐bereaved (IRR 1.35, 95% CI 1.29–1.41; p < 0.001). The increased HF risk was observed not only when the child died due to cardiovascular or other natural causes, but also when the loss was due to unnatural causes. The association tended to be U‐shaped when we categorized the exposed parents by the number of remaining live children at loss or by the age of the deceased child.
Conclusion
We found that the death of a child was associated with an increased risk of HF. The finding that not only cardiovascular and other natural deaths, but also unnatural deaths were associated with HF suggests that stress‐related mechanisms may contribute to the development of HF.
The death of a child and the risk of heart failure.
Research from Western countries suggests that there is an increase in mortality in parents bereaved by the death of a child. Few studies have investigated this issue in a non-Western context. We ...explored the impact of the death of a child on parental mortality in Taiwan.
By linking population-based national registers, we followed the 2004-2014 birth cohort ( N = 2,083,972) up until 2016. A total of 11,755 child deaths were identified. For each deceased child, four living children matched on age and sex were randomly selected; their parents were the comparison group. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to compare the mortality risk of bereaved parents with the comparison group up until 2017.
Overall mortality risk was increased in parents who experienced the death of a child; the risk was higher in bereaved mothers (adjusted hazard ratio = 4.91, 95% confidence interval = 3.96-6.09) than fathers (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.82, 95% confidence interval = 1.55-2.13). The risk did not differ according to the sex of the child, but parents whose children died of unexpected causes (i.e., suicide/accidents/violence) were at greater risk than those dying of other causes. Risk was higher when the child was older than 1 year at the time of death than for deaths before age 1 year.
Parents who lost a child were at increased mortality risk in this East Asian population. Special attention should be paid to the health of bereaved parents and explore the pathways leading to their risk.
The death of a child is a stressful and traumatic life event that has been linked to increased mortality risk among parents. Tragically, black parents are significantly more likely than white parents ...to lose a child in the United States; however, prior research has not addressed this racial disadvantage in relation to parents’ mortality risk. In this study, we focus on the racial context of the United States to suggest that black parents already face higher mortality rates compared to white parents, and the unequal burden of child death adds to their mortality risk. Using discrete-time event history models, we consider whether the death of a child by midlife is associated with increased mortality risk for black parents and for white parents in mid- to later-life using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; 1996–2016). Descriptive results show that by midlife, black parents, especially black mothers, experience substantially higher child mortality compared with white parents. At the same time, we find that losing a child prior to midlife is associated with heightened mortality risk for aging black mothers and white mothers. Controlling for educational attainment explains the association between child death and parental mortality risk among white mothers, whereas heightened biopsychosocial and behavioral risk factors explain the association for black mothers. Overall, the death of a child is associated with increased mortality risk for black mothers and for white mothers, but the processes linking child death to parental mortality seem to differ for black and white parents. These findings have implications for policies and interventions that address increased mortality risk for parents following the death of a child.
•Black mothers are most likely to experience the death of a child by midlife.•Child death increases mortality risk for aging black mothers and white mothers.•Educational attainment explains this association for white mothers.•Biopsychosocial and behavioral factors explain this association for black mothers.•The processes linking child death to parental mortality differ by race.
Photographs offer a way to preserve the bond to a deceased child, and encourage those who grieve to create stories to share with others. The aim of this study is to capture the thoughts that loved ...ones want to express when posting photos and captions on a Facebook. The research data was collected from a discussion board on Facebook and consisted of 229 photographs and their captions. The loved ones of a deceased child shared photographs and captions to express their emotions about the grieving process, their adjustment to loss, and the importance of memories and thoughts aroused by special days.
The death of a child is an individual process of grief but also a context of significant relational processes, which have been only rarely considered in research. The aim of this study was to examine ...the interactive processes within bereaved parents. Eighteen married bereaved parents were interviewed individually. The semistructured script included questions about the couples’ relationship after the death of the child, particularly the relational dynamics and the association between the individual and relational realms. Data analysis using constructivist grounded theory allowed for the development of a circular hypothesis, suggesting that parents’ individual grief influences and is influenced by the couple’s relationship and partner support, involving interdependence and patterns of emotional transmission (empathy and emotion contagion) within the couple. The findings suggested that psychological interventions should include the dyadic level to optimize mutual support and the benefits obtained within marital interactions.
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