Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Care at End of Life Influences Grief: A Nationwide Long-Term Follow-Up among Young Adults Who Lost a Brother or Sister to Childhood Cancer.
Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Department of Health Care Sciences, Palliative Research Centre, PRC. Karolinska institutet.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4736-500X
Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Department of Health Care Sciences, Palliative Research Centre, PRC.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5523-8126
Karolinska Institutet; University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Högskolan Dalarna.
Show others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: Journal of Palliative Medicine, ISSN 1096-6218, E-ISSN 1557-7740, Vol. 21, no 2, p. 156-162Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

BACKGROUND: A majority of cancer-bereaved siblings report long-term unresolved grief, thus it is important to identify factors that may contribute to resolving their grief.

OBJECTIVE: To identify modifiable or avoidable family and care-related factors associated with unresolved grief among siblings two to nine years post loss.

DESIGN: This is a nationwide Swedish postal survey.

MEASUREMENTS: Study-specific questions and the standardized instrument Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Primary outcome was unresolved grief, and family and care-related factors were used as predictors.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Cancer-bereaved sibling (N = 174) who lost a brother/sister to childhood cancer during 2000-2007 in Sweden (participation rate 73%). Seventy-three were males and 101 females. The age of the siblings at time of loss was 12-25 years and at the time of the survey between 19 and 33 years.

RESULTS: Several predictors for unresolved grief were identified: siblings' perception that it was not a peaceful death [odds ratio (OR): 9.86, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.39-40.65], limited information given to siblings the last month of life (OR: 5.96, 95% CI: 1.87-13.68), information about the impending death communicated the day before it occurred (OR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.02-7.33), siblings' avoidance of the doctors (OR: 3.22, 95% CI: 0.75-13.76), and lack of communication with family (OR: 2.86, 95% CI: 1.01-8.04) and people outside the family about death (OR: 5.07, 95% CI: 1.64-15.70). Depressive symptoms (OR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.12-1.45) and time since loss (two to four years: OR: 10.36, 95% CI: 2.87-37.48 and five to seven years: OR: 8.36, 95% CI: 2.36-29.57) also predicted unresolved grief. Together, these predictors explained 54% of the variance of unresolved grief.

CONCLUSION: Siblings' perception that it was not a peaceful death and poor communication with family, friends, and healthcare increased the risk for unresolved grief among the siblings.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. Vol. 21, no 2, p. 156-162
Keywords [en]
Grief, Loss, Pediatric cancer, Prolonged grief, Siblings
National Category
Nursing
Research subject
The Individual in the Welfare Society, Palliative Care
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:esh:diva-6626DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2017.0029PubMedID: 28949788OAI: oai:DiVA.org:esh-6626DiVA, id: diva2:1182298
Available from: 2018-02-12 Created: 2018-02-12 Last updated: 2023-09-12Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMed

Authority records

Lövgren, MalinSveen, JosefinKreicbergs, Ulrika

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Lövgren, MalinSveen, JosefinKreicbergs, Ulrika
By organisation
Palliative Research Centre, PRC
In the same journal
Journal of Palliative Medicine
Nursing

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 228 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf