ArticlePalliative medicine2020
Poor physical and mental health predicts prolonged grief disorder: A prospective, population-based cohort study on caregivers of patients at the end of life.
Article in Palliative medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors associated with grief in informal carers of people living with Motor Neuron Disease: A mixed methods systematic review.Death studies · 2024Pooled it
- Needs Assessment of Safe Medicines Management for Older People With Cognitive Disorders in Home Care: An Integrative Systematic Review.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Pooled it
- Mental Healthcare Delivery in Palliative Care: Patient and Caregiver Perspectives.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2026Article
- Choice, struggle, and resilience: the experience of pre-loss grief among Chinese family caregivers of cancer patients.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Empower-Grief for Relatives of Cancer Patients: Implementation and Findings from an Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Implementation and acceptability of the Caregiver Care Model in general practice: a mixed-method feasibility study.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- ICD-11 Prolonged Grief Disorder, Physical Health, and Somatic Problems: A Systematic Review.Clinical psychology in Europe · 2025Review
- Prolonged Grief Disorder: Course, Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2021Review
- Exploring Functional Impairment in Light of Prolonged Grief Disorder: A Prospective, Population-Based Cohort Study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe health of caregivers can be affected during end-of-life caregiving. Previous cross-sectional studies have indicated an association between poor health status and prolonged grief disorder, but prospective studies are lacking.
aimTo describe physical and mental health status in caregivers of patients at the end of life, and to investigate whether caregivers' health status during caregiving predict prolonged grief disorder.
designA population-based prospective survey was conducted. Health status was measured in caregivers during caregiving (SF-36), and prolonged grief disorder was assessed 6 months after bereavement (Prolonged Grief-13). We calculated mean scores of health status and explored the association with prolonged grief disorder using logistic regression adjusted for age, gender and education. SETTING/
participantsThe health in caregivers of patients granted drug reimbursement due to terminal illness in Denmark in 2012 was assessed during caregiving and 6 months after bereavement (
resultsThe SF-36 subscale 'role-physical' concerning role limitations due to physical health, the 'mental health' component score, and all 'mental health' subscales showed significantly worse health in the participants than in the general population. Both poor physical health (adjusted OR: 1.05 (95% CI: 1.04-1.07)) and poor mental health (adjusted OR: 1.09 (95% CI: 1.07-1.11)) predicted prolonged grief disorder.
conclusionCaregivers scored lower on one physical subscale and all mental health measures than the general population. Prolonged grief disorder was predicted by poor physical and mental health status before bereavement. Future research is needed on the use of health status in systematic assessment to identify caregivers in need of support.
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