Survival of Parents Found Little Affected by Death of a Child
A new study of the health effects of grief, which found little impact on the survival of bereaved parents, appears to challenge common wisdom about the consequences of stressful events and to illustrate human buoyancy in the face of extreme grief.
The study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed the parents of thousands of Israeli men killed in war and in accidents. It found them, for the most part, no more likely than others to die in the 10 years after their child’s death.
“Studies like (this one) demonstrate the resilience that most people bring to the process--and they point out, once again, the importance of social support,” two psychiatrists state in a separate editorial published with the study.
Bereavement is believed to offer insight into the effects of fateful life events on physical health. As a result, there has been extensive research recently into the impact of grief on the health and survival of widows and widowers.
The results of those studies have been mixed, but researchers say they suggest increased mortality, especially among vulnerable groups. Some have tentatively traced that apparent increase to changes in heart and immune system functioning.
However, there has been little study of parents who experience the death of a child--an event believed to be among the most stressful for humans. According to the authors of the new study, it seemed reasonable to assume that there would be adverse health effects.
The researchers, from Hebrew University and the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, studied the parents of 2,518 soldiers who were killed during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and 1974 and the parents of 1,128 men killed in accidents between 1971 and 1975.
The group compared the mortality rates of each group of parents over the next 10 years to the rate in the general Israeli population. Overall, they found no increase in mortality among either group.
However, they did find an increase among the 530 parents who were widowed or divorced at the time of their child’s death. That could reflect a generally higher death rate among unmarried parents or grief over the double loss of child and spouse, the group suggests.
In their accompanying editorial, Dr. Malcolm P. Rogers and Dr. Peter Reich, both of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, point out that grief may have profound consequences short of death. The outcome varies with age, personality, strengths and life situation, they say.
“Rather than emphasize the disruptive power of stress, the physician may do better to emphasize human resilience and the power of life,” they conclude.
