The Mortality of Widowers

Triggering of Acute Cardiovascular Disease and Potential Preventive Strategies

“…[42][43][44][45][46] In a cohort of middle-aged widowers, a 40% increase in the mortality rate was observed in the first 6 months after bereavement. 44 Work-Related Stress A high-pressure work deadline in the prior 24 hours was associated with a 6-fold increase in relative risk of MI in the SHEEP study, 9 whereas in ONSET, the relative risk over a 7-day hazard period was 2.3 (95% CI 1.4 to 4.0) for a high-pressure deadline and 2.2 (95% CI 1.0 to 5.0) for firing somebody. 7 The emotional significance of a job stress influenced its contribution to relative risk of MI.…”

Autonomic and emotion regulation in bereavement and depression

“…Widows and widowers are more likely to die than their married peers of the same age [18], and these individuals are at greater risk during the first 6 months of widowerhood [19]. Support for the ''broken heart'' phenomenon comes from data demonstrating that 75% of the increased death rate is due to heart disease [20].…”

Socioeconomic epidemiology: differential determinants in a longitudinal frame work

“…Greater than expected mortality for men was observed among widowers for those six months. The results of Cox and Ford's (1970) study of 1933 United States widows (widowers were used in the earlier study) mortality conflict with Young et al (1970). Cox and Ford (1970) observed mortality among pensioned widows for five years after death of husband.…”

“…Components of social class have been shown to provide certain subgroups with different kinds of mortality experience; education has been researched by Kitagawa and Hauser (1968), McGirr (1976b), and Upchurch (1962), occupation by Dom (1959), Sauer and Parke (1974), and Tuckman et al (1965), and economic status by Altenderfer (1947), Schwirian and Lagreca (1971), and Yeracaris (1955). Other differen tials studied for the social inequality of mortality include urbanrural residency (Arriga, 1967); Glass, 1964;Wiehl, 1948), marital status (Berkson, 1962;Nam, 1968;Young et al, 1970), sex (Geerken and Gove, 1974;Gove, 1973;Price, 1954), health and medical care and facili ties (McGirr, 1976a;Stockwell, 1961), housing and household charac teristics (Coombs, 1941;Ellis, 1957), race (Howard and Holman, 1970;Sutton, 1971), and ethnicity (Schwirian and Lagreca, 1971). But a host of problems remain in mortality analyses.…”

“…Young et al (1970Young et al ( ) used 1950 English data that included information on older-age (55-years-old and older) widowers for a period of six months immediately after the death of wives. Greater than expected mortality for men was observed among widowers for those six months.…”