Increased mortality in parents bereaved in the first year of their child's life

Objective: To identify the relative risk (RR) of mortality in bereaved parents compared with non-bereaved counterparts. Design: Retrospective data linkage study. Setting: United Kingdom, 1971-2006. Participants: A random sample from death registrations (5%) of parents who had a live birth where the infant lived beyond its first year of life (non-bereaved parents) and parents who had experienced a stillbirth or the death of a child in its first year of life (bereaved parents) between 1971 and 2006. Main outcome measures: Death or widowhood of the parent. Results: Bereaved parents in Scotland (n=738) were more than twice as likely to die in the first 15 years after their child's death than non-bereaved parents (n=50 132), p