Dr. Avnish Jolly ,1 June :According to Elina Nihtila, Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki reported that elderly people are more likely to be institutionalized following the death of a spouse. "We found that the risk of entering long-term institutional care was higher among older adults who had lost their spouse than among those living with their spouse." Moreover, the excess risk of institutionalization was highest during the first month after the spouse’s death, Nihtila said. "The risk was more than three times among both men and women, and decreased with time from bereavement, stabilizing at approximately 20 percent to 50 percent higher over one to five years," she said.
Fortunately, a large proportion of surviving spouses are likely to recover from partner loss, and feelings of despair and anxiety typically do diminish over time, Nihtila said. This "emotional recovery could explain why the very large excess risk of entering institutional care among those recently bereaved dropped with time from the spouse’s death," she said.
The study involved data on almost 141,000 people 65 and older living with a spouse. During five years of follow-up, the risk of being institutionalized rose immediately after the death of a spouse, the researchers found.
There could be various explanations for these findings, Nihtila said, including a "loss of social and instrumental support, in the form of care and help with daily activities such as help in cooking, cleaning, and shopping formerly shared with the deceased spouse." More over, grief and spousal loss may cause various symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, fatigue and loss of concentration also. "Furthermore, grief may cause increased susceptibility to physical diseases that could also increase the need for institutional care," she said. Family support services targeted to the bereaved immediately after a spouse’s death might help ease the strain, Nihtila added.
One expert said the studies highlight the problem of growing social isolation among the elderly.
"There is nothing like being face-to-face with someone," said Colin Milner, CEO of the Vancouver-based International Council on Active Aging. "But I think we are manufacturing that [contact] out of our lifestyle and that will have a long term detrimental effect on the mental health of the population," he said.
More outreach to older people, especially when a spouse dies, will be key, Milner said. "There should be programs when a spouse dies to help them get back into the swing of life," he said.
More information
For more on healthy aging, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/publications/aag/aging.htm