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Mortality of bereavement
Author(s) -
Mainland Donald
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1002/cpt196895682
Subject(s) - statistician , sentence , gerontology , phenomenon , psychology , medicine , demography , history , sociology , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , epistemology
This is the title of a report 12 by a medical practitioner and a statistician on a study of the mortality among persons who had recently lost a close relative by death. The summary ends thus: “People who die following a bereavement are on average slightly younger than the relatives who predeceased them, and they die at an earlier age than is usual for the community in which they live.” It was this sentence that prompted the Editor of this JOURNAL to send me a copy of the report with the following comment: “The last sentence floored me. However I look at it, it means that either (1) an overwhelming number of persons die without anyone caring at all, or (2) there is a progressive and inevitable downward trend in the lifespan of communities sharing this phenomenon. What is the flaw?”