Parental mortality following the loss of a child to a drug-related death

Abstract

Background: The drug-related death of a child has been linked to higher prevalence of complicated grief and mental health problems than bereavement by other causes of death. Whether this leads to an increased risk of mortality following the loss has not yet been examined.

Methods: Employing register data covering the years 1986-2015 and encompassing the entire Norwegian population, parents with at least one child aged 15 or older were analyzed using Cox regression. Drug-death bereaved parents were compared with both non-bereaved parents and parents bereaved by other causes of death.

Results: Parents bereaved by a drug-related death generally had a higher natural cause mortality throughout the follow-up. Drug-death bereaved parents had a particularly high external cause mortality in the first 2 years subsequent to bereavement when compared with non-bereaved parents (mothers: hazard ratio 4.82, 95% CI = 3.11-7.47; fathers: hazard ratio 2.50, 95% CI = 1.57-3.97). There was also an elevated, but significantly lower mortality risk from external causes 2 to 10 years subsequent to bereavement. This indicates that the associations observed are not solely due to selection.

Conclusions: Parents bereaved by the drug-related death of a child had a higher mortality than both non-bereaved parents and parents bereaved by other causes of death. Drug-death bereaved parents had particularly high external cause mortality. Our results indicate that losing a child to a drug-related death is associated with adverse health outcomes and that these might be more severe than bereavement due to other causes of death.