Stockholm university

Research project Mental health consequences following the loss of a family member during the Corona pandemic

What are the associations between the death of a family member during the COVID-19 pandemic and the risk of in- and out-patient psychiatric care, use of psychotropic medication, mental health related sick-leave, and attempted and completed suicides among bereaved family members?

There is an urgent need for research on the collateral health effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bereavement, as the consequence of massive deaths in a pandemic, can have severe social, psychosocial, and health consequences across all age groups. Moreover, the pandemic also inflicted unique challenges on bereaved people, with the unequal burden of COVID-19 bereavement disproportionately affecting groups of disadvantaged backgrounds, e.g. migrants. Therefore, a thorough evaluation of the adverse outcomes and experiences related to bereavement during the pandemic is vital and immediately necessary for designing policies and interventions to support bereaved families.

The project will provide important knowledge about the pandemic's unintended consequences and related restrictions that were widely practised in many areas of the world.

Lonely park bench
Photo: Johannes Erlandsson/Mostphotos

Project description

Approximately 120,000-180,000 Swedes lost a family member due to C OVID-19. Moreover, about ten times more individuals lost a family member to other causes during the pandemic. With pandemic restrictions, bereavement during the pandemic could be particularly challenging, thereby amplifying its adverse mental health consequences. The mental health consequences and related sick leave following bereavement during the pandemic and the pandemic-specific circumstances and experiences contributing to these adverse outcomes remain unclear.

We will use mixed methods combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. In quantitative analyses, we aim to evaluate the impact of bereavement on mental health using longitudinal data from Swedish nationwide total-population social and health registers. We will compare bereavement during the pandemic to before the pandemic, in different phases of the pandemic, bereavement due to C OVID-19 to other causes of death, and in different population groups. Meanwhile, we will use qualitative interviews to explore further and identify the pandemic-related circumstances and experiences of people bereaved during the pandemic that may have contributed to adverse mental health outcomes.

The project will provide up-to-date information on bereavement's health and social consequences. It will generate human-centred policy-relevant knowledge, which can reduce the negative impacts of bereavement in the pandemic and guide policy actions in future health crises.

Project members

Project managers

Mikael Rostila

Professor

Department of Public Health Sciences
MR

Members

Lisa Berg

Senior Lecturer/docent

Department of Public Health Sciences
Lisa Berg

Rakel Eklund

Researcher

Uppsala University

Alessandra Grotta

Researcher

Department of Public Health Sciences
Alessandra Grotta

Ayako Hiyoshi

Guest Researcher

Department of Public Health Sciences
Hiyoshi_2021

Can Liu

Forskare

Department of Public Health Sciences
Can Liu

Josefin Sveen

Associate professor

University of Bergen