Bereavement and long-term morbidity: an Australian project

spouse-bereaved subjects who had participated in earlier bereavement studies volunteered to allow investigation of their health up to eleven years after the death of their spouse. Re-enrolled controls were also studied over a similar period. Morbidity was measured in three ways: self-reports from the subjects, data obtained from medical records, and morbidity data common to both sources (confirmed data). The findings showed that the bereaved had an elevation in morbidity rate over non-bereaved, which was both substantial and statistically significant. Diseases of the circulatory system were significantly more common in the bereaved, as were psychiatric disorders in all data sources. Furthermore, bereaved had more respiratory and musculo-skeletal system illnesses according to the self-report source. Overall, more bereaved than controls suffered at least one illness, and had illnesses of a longer duration. Bereaved with a high level of morbidity in the two years following bereavement also had more illnesses in later years.