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Widowhood and Mortality: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression

  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

The study of spousal bereavement and mortality has long been a major topic of interest for social scientists, but much remains unknown with respect to important moderating factors, such as age, follow-up duration, and geographic region. The present study examines these factors using meta-analysis. Keyword searches were conducted in multiple electronic databases, supplemented by extensive iterative hand searches. We extracted 1,377 mortality risk estimates from 123 publications, providing data on more than 500 million persons. Compared with married people, widowers had a mean hazard ratio (HR) of 1.23 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.19–1.28) among HRs adjusted for age and additional covariates and a high subjective quality score. The mean HR was higher for men (HR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.19–1.35) than for women (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.08–1.22). A significant interaction effect was found between gender and mean age, with HRs decreasing more rapidly for men than for women as age increased. Other significant predictors of HR magnitude included sample size, geographic region, level of statistical adjustment, and study quality.

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Notes

  1. Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, and Russia.

  2. Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.

  3. Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support provided by Grant HL-76857 from the National Institutes of Health. The funding source had no involvement in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, McGill University, Room 713, Leacock Building, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7, Canada

    Eran Shor

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA

    David J. Roelfs

  3. Department of Sociology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-4356, USA

    Misty Curreli

  4. Behavioral Cardiovascular Health and Hypertension Program, Columbia University Medical Center, 622 West 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Lynn Clemow & Matthew M. Burg

  5. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-8790, USA

    Joseph E. Schwartz

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  1. Eran Shor
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Correspondence to David J. Roelfs.

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Shor, E., Roelfs, D.J., Curreli, M. et al. Widowhood and Mortality: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression. Demography 49, 575–606 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-012-0096-x

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