Health Status of Bereaved Parents

Abstract

Forty-seven mothers and 33 fathers, representing 48 families, participated in a propective longitudinal study of the effects on family members of a child's dying. The purpose of this article is to describe parents' health during the terminal illness of their child and during the first year following their child's death from cancer. The Duke-UNC Health Profile was used to examine parents' health prior to and at three points in thime after the child's death. The bereavedparents' general health was compared to the health of normative sample of adults. The findings indicate that parents' health is not adversely affected by a child's death from cancer.