Increased risk for hip fracture after death of a spouse-further support for bereavement frailty?

ABSTRACT: Death of a spouse is associated with poorer physical and mental health. We followed all married individuals, born from 1902 to 1942, during the period from 1987 to 2002, and found that widows and widowers had higher risk for hip fracture, compared with still married women and men.

Introduction

Spousal bereavement can lead to poorer physical and mental health. We aimed to determine whether married women and men had an elevated risk of hip fracture after death of a spouse.

Methods

In a retrospective cohort study, we followed all Swedish married individuals aged 60 to 100 years (n = 1,783,035), from 1987 to 2002. Data are presented as mean with 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

During the follow-up period, 21,305 hip fractures among widows and 6538 hip fractures among

SUBMITTER: Vala CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7075824 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature