Funeral Attendance Research Articles

Physicians' Contact With Families After the Death of Pediatric Patients: A Survey of Pediatric Critical Care Practitioners' Beliefs and Self-Reported Practices

Although research with bereaved families has shown that they appreciate contact with clinicians after the child's death, this realm of clinical practice remains empirically uncharted. The objective of this study was to describe pediatric critical care practitioners' attitudes and self-reported practices regarding contacting families after a patient's death. A total of 376 board-certified members of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Critical Care received e-mail invitations to complete a Web-based questionnaire; 204 members responded (effective response rate: 54.3%). Most (95%) participants reported 0 to 1 patient deaths per week. A total of 79% of the respondents reported contacting families at least sometimes, 71.9% had attended funerals, and only 2.5% thought that it was inappropriate for clinicians to attend funerals. A total of 75.9% agreed that follow-up contact helps the family, whereas 47.3% agreed that follow-up contact helps the physicians. The most common methods of follow-up contact included the passive measures of providing contact information; active methods such as meeting with the family, calling them by telephone, or writing a letter or note were used less often. In multivariable analysis, respondents were more likely to report contact with a family after the death of a child when they affirmed the belief that such contact was useful to the family or to the physician or when they were female physicians. Regarding reported funeral attendance after the death of a patient, multivariable analysis revealed similar patterns of association but to an attenuated and nonstatistically significant degree. A high proportion of pediatric critical care physicians have contacted bereaved families and attended funerals after the death of a child patient. These practices were consistently associated with the belief that such follow-up contact helps the family or the practitioner.

The impact of AIDS on government service delivery: the case of the Zambia Wildlife Authority

The loss of working-aged adults to HIV/AIDS has been shown to increase the costs of labor to the private sector in Africa. There is little corresponding evidence for the public sector. This study evaluated the impact of AIDS on the costs and service delivery capacity of a government agency, the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA). Data were collected on workforce characteristics, mortality, costs, and number of days spent on patrol between 2003 and 2005 by 76 current patrol officers (reference subjects) and 11 patrol officers who died of AIDS or suspected AIDS (index subjects). The impact of AIDS on service delivery capacity and labor costs and the net benefits of providing treatment were estimated. Reference subjects averaged 197.4 patrol days per year. After adjustment index subjects patrolled 68% less in their last year of service (P < 0.0001), 51% less in their second to last year (P < 0.0001), and 37% less in their third to last year (P < 0.0001). For each employee who died, ZAWA lost an additional 111 person-days for management, funeral attendance, vacancy and staff replacement. Each death also cost ZAWA the equivalent of 3.3 years' annual compensation for care, benefits, recruitment, and training. In 2005, AIDS reduced service delivery capacity by 6.0% and increased labor costs by 9.3%. Impacts on this government agency are substantially larger than observed in the private sector. AIDS is constraining ZAWA's ability to protect Zambia's parks. At a cost of US $500/patient/year, antiretroviral therapy (ART) would result in service improvements and net budgetary savings to ZAWA.

An Analysis of the Impact of Aids on Funeral Culture in Malawi

Social research on AIDS is beginning to look beyond the causes, treatment, and prevention of the disease to its impacts on society and the economy. This article looks specifically at the impact of AIDS on funeral culture in Malawi. Statistical methods, basic ethnography, and focused interviews were employed to document changes in funerary customs and attendance patterns. Because of rising death rates from AIDS, Malawians are facing increasing difficulty in attending every funeral in their village, as custom requires. This is leading to selectivity in funeral attendance, stemming from a prioritization based on underlying cultural values. Families of AIDS victims are also facing difficulties in coping with the expectation to provide a funeral feast, given that funerals are far more numerous than before the onset of the AIDS crisis. This article demonstrates the importance of adapting both old and new methods to understanding the multifaceted AIDS epidemic.

A PHENOMENOGRAPHIC APPROACH TO THE MEANING OF DEATH: A CHINESE PERSPECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to investigate qualitative and quantitative differences in Chinese children's concepts of death, as reflected in their drawings, and to analyze this conceptual development as it related to background variables (such as gender, age, religious belief, and heath status). Participants were 239 children in 6 grade groups recruited from primary and junior high school. The children were asked to draw their impression of the word "death" and to give a verbal commentary of what they had drawn. The drawings were analyzed according to a phenomenographic method and assigned to one of 3 superordinate and 12 subordinate qualitative categories, adapted from M. E. Tamm and A. Granqvist (1995). Metaphysical and biological death concepts dominated, while psychological death concepts were depicted least. Consistent with previous studies of the development of concepts of death in children, biological death concepts were most common for the younger age groups, and metaphysical death concepts were found predominately in the older age groups. Chi-square analysis revealed no significant differences among death concept categories as a function of the participants' gender, health status, religious belief, funeral attendance, or prior death of relatives or pets. The results are interpreted as providing a unique window on death concepts among Chinese children.

Epidemiological and diagnostic aspects of the outbreak of pneumonic plague in Madagascar

Plague is a re-emerging disease and pneumonic plague is the most feared clinical form. We describe a well-documented outbreak of pneumonic plague in Madagascar. Field epidemiological data were collected. Biological tests (microscopy, culture of Yersinia pestis, F1 antigen ELISA and dipstick assays, IgG anti-F1 ELISA) were done on sputum, serum, or necropsy samples. The infection rate among 154 contacts was assessed by anti-F1 serological techniques. The index case was a bubonic patient with a secondary lung infection, who contaminated a traditional healer and his family. Funeral ceremonies and attendance on patients contaminated other villagers. In total 18 cases were recorded, and eight died. F1 antigen could be detected in sputum by ELISA and dipstick tests as early as the second day after the onset of the symptoms and also 48 h after treatment. Among the contact population 13 of 154 (8.4%) have been exposed to the plague bacillus (symptomless or latent infections). The F1 dipstick assay on sputum is an invaluable diagnostic tool for pneumonic plague. Treatment of patients and chemoprophylaxis of contacts were efficient in stopping the epidemic.

Latinos and Anglos: Cultural Experiences of Grief Intensity

There is little research evidence in the United States literature on grief within the Latino culture. The main purpose of this study was to examine differences in grief intensity, following both sudden and expected death, between groups of Latino and Anglo individuals. Volunteer participants, fifty Latino and fifty Anglo, were surveyed using the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (English version and translated into Spanish) to assess grief intensity. Using primarily a 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance, it was found that Latinos grieving sudden death have a significantly greater grief intensity than Latinos grieving expected death and than Anglos grieving either kind of death. Among participants, neither funeral attendance, time since death, nor closeness of relationship had any significant effect on grief intensity. Additionally, among Latino participants, neither participation in a novena nor acculturation had a significant effect on grief intensity.

The “Haunted” Child: Grief, Hallucinations, and Family Dynamics

Abstract The cases of three nonpsychotic children, aged 9 to 14, who experienced hallucinatory phenomena after the death of a family member are discussed from a developmental and family-systems perspective. Hallucinations of the deceased in these developmentally vulnerable children arose out of a regression from a conceptual mode of cognitive operation to a perceptual one in which infantile death concepts were reactivated. The symptom allowed the child vicariously to reestablish a close bond with a mother whose incomplete mourning had made her emotionally unavailable. The relevance of funeral attendance is discussed.

Impact of sibling death on children's behavior

Abstract Research has indicated that siblings of deceased children demonstrate a variety of behavioral problems as a result of the death. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of selected factors and children's behavior during the first year following the siblings' deaths. The sample included 33 boys and 32 girls ages 4 to 16 years who were the siblings of deceased children. Data on their behavior was obtained by an interview with the mothers using a standardized tool, the Child Behavior Checklist. Results showed that the bereaved children displayed significantly more behavior problems in comparison to standardized norms. The variables of age, place of death, family size, ill child's diagnosis, sex and age of deceased child, and funeral attendance were related to behavior problems in the surviving children.

Funeral attendance, cremation, and young siblings

Abstract This study of the funeral attendance of sixty-five children ages four through sixteen showed that most children attended their siblings' final services. Data were gathered during home interviews with the parents. Behavior problems in the first year were measured using a standardized Child Behavior Checklist developed by Achenbach and Edelbrock. Analysis by t-test indicated children who had attended the funeral or memorial services displayed more behavior problems than children who did not attend. In particular, children in the younger age group and females showed more behavior problems related to funeral attendance. The study suggests that funeral practices need to be further investigated for their impact on children.

Migration and Death Ceremonies On St. Kitts and Nevis

Since British slave emancipation in 1838, Afro-Caribbean men and women of St. Kitts and Nevis in the Leeward Caribbean have emigrated and returned in order to sustain their local societies. Economic uncertainty and social oppression both at home and abroad have inspired Kittitians and Nevisians to develop mobile livelihood strategies in order to tap ever-changing sources of employment. Labor migrants from the two islands have therefore often resisted permanent commitments in any one direction except for occasionally returning home. These periodic returns are important to the local community because the migrants usually bring back money and gifts to kinsmen and friends. A related obligation, especially in recent years, has been for migrants to return to family funerals. Funeral attendance confers economic advantages on both permanent residents of St. Kitts and Nevis and the migrant workers abroad. The money and gifts brought back by returning migrants help sustain the local community. The returning migrant...