IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0282892.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sex differences in health care expenditures and mortality after spousal bereavement: A register-based Danish cohort study

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandros Katsiferis
  • Samir Bhatt
  • Laust Hvas Mortensen
  • Swapnil Mishra
  • Rudi G J Westendorp

Abstract

Background: Spousal bereavement is a life event that affects older people differently. We investigated the impact of spousal bereavement on medical expenditures and mortality in the general population, emphasizing on age and sex. Methods: Data are from a population-based, retrospective cohort study following 924,958 Danish citizens over the age of 65 years, within 2011–2016. Changes in health care expenditures in those who suffer bereavement were compared with time matched changes among those who did not. Mortality hazards were analysed with time to event analysis. Results: A total of 77,722 (~8.4%) individuals experienced bereavement, 65.8% being females. Among males, bereavement was associated with increase of expenditures the year after, that was 42 Euros per week (95% CI, 36 to 48) larger than the non-bereaved group. The corresponding increase for females was 35 Euros per week (95% CI, 30 to 40). The increase of mortality hazards was highest in the first year after bereavement, higher in males than females, in young old and almost absent in the oldest old. Compared with the reference, mortality the year after spousal loss was 70% higher (HR 1.70 [95% CI 1.40 to 2.08]) for males aged 65–69 years and remained elevated for a period of six years. Mortality for females aged 65–69 years was 27% higher in the first year (HR 1.27, [1.07 to 1.52]), normalizing thereafter. Conclusion: Bereavement affects older people differently with younger males being most frail with limited recovery potential.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandros Katsiferis & Samir Bhatt & Laust Hvas Mortensen & Swapnil Mishra & Rudi G J Westendorp, 2023. "Sex differences in health care expenditures and mortality after spousal bereavement: A register-based Danish cohort study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0282892
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282892
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0282892
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0282892&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0282892?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manor, Orly & Eisenbach, Zvi, 2003. "Mortality after spousal loss: are there socio-demographic differences?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 405-413, January.
    2. Ho, Daniel E. & Imai, Kosuke & King, Gary & Stuart, Elizabeth A., 2007. "Matching as Nonparametric Preprocessing for Reducing Model Dependence in Parametric Causal Inference," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 199-236, July.
    3. Hamparsum Bozdogan, 1987. "Model selection and Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC): The general theory and its analytical extensions," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 345-370, September.
    4. Anne Lise Holm & Elisabeth Severinsson & Astrid Karin Berland, 2019. "The Meaning of Bereavement Following Spousal Loss: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Older Adults," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(4), pages 21582440198, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alexandros Katsiferis & Samir Bhatt & Laust Hvas Mortensen & Swapnil Mishra & Majken Karoline Jensen & Rudi G J Westendorp, 2023. "Machine learning models of healthcare expenditures predicting mortality: A cohort study of spousal bereaved Danish individuals," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-16, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peña-Longobardo, L.M. & Rodríguez-Sánchez, B. & Oliva-Moreno, J., 2021. "The impact of widowhood on wellbeing, health, and care use: A longitudinal analysis across Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    2. Liu, Yan & Chen, Xi & Yan, Zhijun, 2019. "Depression in the House: The Effects of Household Air Pollution from Solid Fuel Use in China," IZA Discussion Papers 12654, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Noemi Kreif & Richard Grieve & Rosalba Radice & Zia Sadique & Roland Ramsahai & Jasjeet S. Sekhon, 2012. "Methods for Estimating Subgroup Effects in Cost-Effectiveness Analyses That Use Observational Data," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 32(6), pages 750-763, November.
    4. Do, Manh Hung & Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Grote, Ulrike, 2023. "Land consolidation, rice production, and agricultural transformation: Evidence from household panel data for Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 157-173.
    5. repec:plo:pone00:0178915 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Ioana Gutu & Daniela Tatiana Agheorghiesei & Alexandru Tugui, 2023. "Assessment of a Workforce Sustainability Tool through Leadership and Digitalization," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-30, January.
    7. Federico Biagi & Daniele Bondonio & Alberto Martini, 2015. "Counterfactual Impact Evaluation of Enterprise Support Programmes. Evidence from a Decade of Subsidies to Italian Firm," ERSA conference papers ersa15p1619, European Regional Science Association.
    8. Bono, Pierre-Henri & David, Quentin & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Py, Loriane, 2022. "Metro infrastructure and metropolitan attractiveness," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    9. Daniela Andreini & Diego Rinallo & Giuseppe Pedeliento & Mara Bergamaschi, 2017. "Brands and Religion in the Secularized Marketplace and Workplace: Insights from the Case of an Italian Hospital Renamed After a Roman Catholic Pope," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 529-550, March.
    10. Jon Anson, 2010. "Beyond Material Explanations: Family Solidarity and Mortality, a Small Area‐level Analysis," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(1), pages 27-45, March.
    11. Zichen Deng & Maarten Lindeboom, 2021. "Early-life Famine Exposure, Hunger Recall and Later-life Health," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-054/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    12. Leah Warfield Smith & Randall Lee Rose & Alex R. Zablah & Heath McCullough & Mohammad “Mike” Saljoughian, 2023. "Examining post-purchase consumer responses to product automation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 530-550, May.
    13. Baron, Opher & Callen, Jeffrey L. & Segal, Dan, 2023. "Does the bullwhip matter economically? A cross-sectional firm-level analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    14. Noémi Kreif & Richard Grieve & M. Zia Sadique, 2013. "Statistical Methods For Cost‐Effectiveness Analyses That Use Observational Data: A Critical Appraisal Tool And Review Of Current Practice," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 486-500, April.
    15. Jonathan Colmer & Ralf Martin & Mirabelle Muûls & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2020. "Does pricing carbon mitigate climate change? Firm-level evidence from the European Union emissions trading scheme," CEP Discussion Papers dp1728, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    16. Jian Jiu Chen & Sai Yin Ho & Wing Man Au & Man Ping Wang & Tai Hing Lam, 2015. "Family Smoking, Exposure to Secondhand Smoke at Home and Family Unhappiness in Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, November.
    17. Kube, Roland & von Graevenitz, Kathrine & Löschel, Andreas & Massier, Philipp, 2019. "Do voluntary environmental programs reduce emissions? EMAS in the German manufacturing sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).
    18. S. A. Abu Bakar & Saralees Nadarajah & Z. A. Absl Kamarul Adzhar, 2018. "Loss modeling using Burr mixtures," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1503-1516, June.
    19. Blackman, Allen, 2013. "Evaluating forest conservation policies in developing countries using remote sensing data: An introduction and practical guide," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-16.
    20. Byrd, T. A. & Marshall, T. E., 1997. "Relating information technology investment to organizational performance: a causal model analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 43-56, February.
    21. repec:zbw:rwirep:0170 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Natalie Carvalho & Naveen Thacker & Subodh S Gupta & Joshua A Salomon, 2014. "More Evidence on the Impact of India's Conditional Cash Transfer Program, Janani Suraksha Yojana: Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of the Effects on Childhood Immunization and Other Reproductive and Chil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-13, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0282892. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.