Cancer mortality following widow(ER)hood: Some further results from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys Longitudinal Study

Abstract

AbstractMany studies have suggested that following the experience of ‘stressful’ life events the risks of myocardial infarction, accidents and perhaps other diseases including cancer are elevated. In the OPCS Longitudinal Study (LS) routinely collected data on deaths, and deaths of a spouse occurring in a 1 per cent sample of the population of England and Wales in the period 1971‐81, are linked together and with 1971 census records of sample members. The timing and patterns of death following the potentially very stressful event of conjugal bereavement may thus be analysed.Overall the mortality in widowers, but not widows, was about 10 per cent in excess of that in all members of the LS sample for most major cause of death groups. As in many earlier studies, some increases in death rates shortly after widow(er)hood are observed. Unusually, for deaths from all causes these increases are more marked in widows than in widowers, with, for example, a twofold increase in mortality from all causes in the first month after widowhood. However, no peak of postbereavement mortality from malignant diseases is clearly established in either sex.Although the study is large, with a well‐chosen control group, only a limited characterization of study members from data collected in the census is possible. In particular no measures of personality or behaviour are available. Gradients in postbereavement mortality similar to those in general mortality were found with several measures of socioeconomic status, including social class. Investigation of potential effects of social or familial support, as measured by household structure and numbers of children, led to equivocal results.The observed patterns, although consistent with an early effect of a stressful life event, do not strongly suggest that stress following bereavement leads to an excess of cancer mortality. The limited follow‐up of the study cohort since widowhood must, however, be kept in mind.