Abstract
BackgroundBereavement is the experience of an individual following the death of a person of significance to the individual, most often referring to the spouse. Increased morbidity, health care utilization, and mortality are known to be associated with bereavement. Given China’s growing population of older adults, there is a critical need to assess the health consequences of bereavement.MethodWe use data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study to examine the impact of bereavement on mental health and quality of life among a sample of mid- and older-aged adults. We use propensity score matching to construct a matching sample and difference-in-differences method to estimate the impact of bereavement on mental health and self-assessed health.ResultsWe find bereavement is associated with increased depression symptoms among women (1.542 point or 0.229 standard deviations of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) 10 score) but not consistently for men over time. No statistically significant effect of bereavement on self-assessed health is found.ConclusionsOur results show a harmful impact of bereavement on mental health among older women in China and point to the need for a comprehensive policy on survivor benefits in China, particularly for rural older women.
Highlights
Bereavement is the experience of an individual following the death of a person of significance to the individual, most often referring to the spouse
We find bereavement is associated with increased depression symptoms among women (1.542 point or 0.229 standard deviations of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) 10 score) but not consistently for men over time
Our results show a harmful impact of bereavement on mental health among older women in China and point to the need for a comprehensive policy on survivor benefits in China, for rural older women
Summary
Bereavement is the experience of an individual following the death of a person of significance to the individual, most often referring to the spouse. Bereavement, the death of a family member, can be a significant life event that leaves survivors with a traumatic grief experience [1, 2]. Berkman and Syme have analyzed the 1965 Human Population Laboratory survey of a random sample of 6928 adults in Alameda County, California. They conclude that people who lacked social and community ties were more likely to die in the follow-up period than those with more extensive contacts [8]. The relationship is independent of self-reported physical health status, year of spousal death, socioeconomic status, and health practices
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