Experience of sibling death in childhood and risk of psychiatric care in adulthood: a national cohort study from Sweden
Bereavement; Death; Grief; Sweden; Sibling
Studies have found that sibling loss is associated with an increased risk of death from external causes (i.e. suicides, accidents and homicides). Increased psychiatric health problems following bereavement could underlie such an association. We studied the influence of sibling loss during childhood on psychiatric care in young adulthood, adjusting for psychosocial covariates shared by siblings in childhood. A national cohort born in Sweden in 1973-1982 (N = 701,270) was followed prospectively until 2013. Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyse the association between sibling loss during childhood and psychiatric inpatient and outpatient care identified by the Hospital Discharge Register. After adjustment for confounders, the HRs of psychiatric care in men who experienced sibling loss were 1.17 (95% CI 1.07-1.27) while the associations turned non-significant in women after adjustment for family-related psychosocial covariates, HR 1.07 (95% CI 0.99-1.16). An increased risk was found in men bereaved in early childhood (1.22 95% CI 1.07-1.38) and adolescence (1.27 95% CI 1.08-1.48). Among women, loss of a sibling during adolescence was significantly associated with psychiatric care (1.19 95% CI 1.03-1.36). Increased psychiatric health problems following bereavement could underlie the previously found association between sibling loss and mortality from external causes. Family-related psychosocial conditions shared by siblings in childhood may account for the association between sibling death and psychiatric care in adulthood.
Rostila M; Berg L; Saarela J; Kawachi I; Hjern A
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
2019
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01324-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1007/s00787-019-01324-6</a>
The forgotten griever: a nationwide follow-up study of mortality subsequent to the death of a sibling
adolescent; Female; Humans; Male; Young Adult; bereavement; Adult; mortality; Follow-Up Studies; Aged; Middle Aged; Siblings; cause of death; Age Factors; Sex Factors; Sweden; Proportional Hazards Models; Registries; sibling bereavement
Previous findings have suggested that the loss of a family member is associated with mortality among bereaved family members. The least-studied familial relationship in the bereavement literature is that of siblings, although loss of a sibling may also involve health consequences. The authors conducted a follow-up study based on data from the Swedish total population register, covering the period 1981-2002. Using Cox regression, mortality risk ratios for bereaved and nonbereaved persons aged 18-69 years were estimated. All-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality (unnatural causes, natural causes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, suicide, accidents, and all other causes) were examined. In men, the mortality risk for bereaved persons versus nonbereaved persons was 1.26 (95% confidence interval: 1.22, 1.30), and in women it was 1.33 (95% confidence interval: 1.28, 1.39). An elevated mortality risk associated with a sibling's death was found in all age groups studied, but the association was generally stronger at younger ages and could be observed predominantly after more than 1 year of follow-up. There was also an increased mortality risk if the sibling had died from a discordant main cause, which may strengthen the possibility that the association observed is not due to confounding alone.
Rostila Mikael; Saarela J; Kawachi I
American Journal Of Epidemiology
2012
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kws163" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1093/aje/kws163</a>
Divorce And Parity Progression Following The Death Of A Child: A Register-based Study From Finland
Child Death; Divorce; Finland; Parity Progression; Register Data
Most studies that have examined whether a child's death influences parental relationship stability have used small-scale data sets and their results are inconclusive. A likely reason is that child loss affects not only the risk of parental separation, but also the risk of having another child. Hence parity progression and separation must be treated as two competing events in relation to child loss. The analysis in this paper used Finnish register data from 1971 to 2003, covering over 100,000 married couples whose durations of both first marriage and parenthood could be observed. We ran parity-specific Cox regressions in which process time started from the birth of each additional child. All marriages included women of childbearing age, none of whom had experienced any child death on entering the analysis. We find that child loss only modestly influences the divorce risk, whereas its effect on the risk of parity progression is considerable.
Finnas F; Rostila M; Saarela J
Population Studies
2017
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
10.1080/00324728.2017.1337918