The health of widows in the year following bereavement

Abstract

Much has been written during the past decade about the mortality and morbidity which may follow conjugal bereavement [1–4]. Existing studies of morbidity do not however enable us to draw any substantial conclusions about the prevalence of such consequences in widows and widowers. Either the population of bereaved persons has been a highly selected one, commonly available for study because they have been referred for psychiatric treatment, or there has been no utilization of a non-bereaved control group, the desirability of which is heightened by the tendency towards some deterioration in physical and mental health in middle age [5]. This present study developed as one segment of a major research endeavour, aimed ultimately at the identification in advance of those widows most likely to suffer untoward physical and/or psychological consequences following conjugal bereavement [6]. Our major focus has been on the subject's interaction with her social network during the three months immediately following the bereavement [7], the whole study being conceptualized within the framework of crisis theory [8]. Our findings on the health of widows, however, were of such interest that it seemed worthwhile to examine suitably matched control groups in order to determine more truly the prevalence of health deterioration following bereavement. As well as information about the overall prevalence of health deterioration in two samples of widows, one in Boston, Massachusetts and the other in Sydney, Australia, our techniques also enabled us to gather information about the specific symptoms and syndromes manifested by the subjects and the matched controls.