UK Correspondence to

Increased mortality in parents bereaved in the fi rst year of their child’s life Mairi Harper,1 Rory C O’Connor,2 Ronan E O’Carroll2 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 fi rst year of life (non-bereaved parents) and parents who had experienced a stillbirth or the death of a child in its fi rst 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 fi rst 15 years after their child’s death than non-bereaved parents (n=50 132), p<0.005. Bereaved mothers in England and Wales (n=481) were more than four times as likely to die in the fi rst 15 years after their child’s birth than non-bereaved parents (n=30 956), p<0.001. The mortality risk for bereaved mothers compared with non-bereaved mothers, followed up for 25 years after death, was 1.5 (bereaved n=745, non-bereaved n=36 434), p<0.005. When followed up for 35 years, the risk of mortality for bereaved mothers (n=1120) was 1.2 times that of non-bereaved mothers (n=36 062), p<0.005. Conclusions Bereaved parents who experience stillbirth or infant death have markedly increased mortality compared with non-bereaved parents, up to 25 years (mean) after the death of their child. However, the RR reduces over time