Spousal bereavement, mortality and risk of negative health outcomes among older adults: a population-based study

Lucas Morin; Jonas W Wastesson; Stefan Fors; Neda Agahi; Kristina Johnell

Older adults whose spouse died from a sudden cause of death had the greatest excess risk of death and hip fracture compared with their married counterparts, while those who lost a spouse from cancer had the greatest excess risk of pneumonia. Moreover, individuals whose spouse died from organ failure had a higher-than-average excess risk of self-inflicted injuries and suicide (Supplementary Table S24 ). In subgroup analyses, we found that, while the risk of death was substantially higher among individuals with a high Hospital Frailty Risk Score at baseline, the relative difference between bereaved cases and married controls was largest among those at intermediate risk of frailty (Supplementary Table S25 and Supplementary Figure S7 ). There was no evidence that the excess risk of death associated with bereavement rose with increasing number of chronic conditions (IRR for the interaction between bereaved status and number of chronic conditions 1.00, 95% CI 0.98-1.02). Accounting for the competing risk of death did not modify our main results (Supplementary Table S26 ).