Citation

Haapea M, Nordström T, Räsänen S, Miettunen J, Niemelä M. Death Stud. 2022; 46(1): 168-177.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/07481187.2020.1725928

PMID

32065081

Abstract

Parental death before adulthood has been shown to increase offspring's risk of poor health and adverse social consequences. In a sample of 422 subjects with parental death (334 (79.1%) due to natural causes), and 6172 matched controls, those with parental death were given a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder up to 28 years of age earlier than their controls (10-year survival proportions: 88.6% vs. 93.1%, p = 0.001). Our findings indicate that psychosocial support must be provided as early as when a parent falls ill, especially with those illnesses that are the most common causes of death in the population.

Language: en