Stillbirth or loss of child linked to 4 times more chances of parent mortality

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A new study has found that mothers who experience a stillbirth or lose a child in the first year of life are more than 4 times more likely to die or become widowed in the following decade than moms who don’t experience this type of bereavement.

The study was prompted by other research showing that bereavement can affect immune and cardiac functioning, said lead author Mairi Harper, PhD, research fellow at University of York, United Kingdom, adding that she and her colleagues wanted to see whether this was true for parents who had lost a very young child.

“What we actually found was that it went further than that; the mortality rate of bereaved parents was significantly higher than nonbereaved parents,” said Dr. Harper. “What was surprising was that the outcome of mortality and death was up to 5 times higher in the bereaved parent group than the nonbereaved group. It was the size of that difference that came as a bit of a shock.”

Ref and Read more: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/750262?sssdmh=dm1.720622&src=nldne

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