Bereavement, Memorial Attendance, and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Results from the Nurses’ Health Study

• Published in: The American journal of geriatric psychiatry Vol. 31; no. 12; pp. 1045 - 1057
• Main Authors: Denckla, Christy A., Hahn, Jill, Cowden, Richard G., Ho, Samuel, Gao, Katie, Espinosa Dice, Ana Lucia, Jha, Shaili C., Kang, Jae H., Shear, M. Katherine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Inc 01-12-2023; Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
• Subjects: anxiety; Bereavement; depression; memorials; Nurses Health Study; Regular; anxiety; Bereavement; Nurses Health Study; depression; memorials
• ISSN: 1064-7481; 1545-7214
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jagp.2023.06.012

•What is the primary question addressed by this study?Was bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic associated with elevated psychological distress among aging women, and did memorial attendance buffer these effects?•What is the main finding of this study?Bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with elevated psychological distress up to 1 year later, taking into account prepandemic depression levels. Attending a memorial, especially in person, was associated with lower distress compared to bereaved individuals who did not attend a memorial.•What is the meaning of the finding?Bereavement is associated with elevated psychological distress, and attending memorials may have a protective effect.
Mortality increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many bereaved individuals were not able to gather to memorialize their loved ones, yet it is unknown if this contributed to worsening mental health.
Examine the association of bereavement in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic with subsequent psychological distress and the role of memorial attendance in reducing psychological distress among the bereaved.
In May 2020, 39,564 older females from the Nurses’ Health Study II enrolled in a longitudinal COVID-19 substudy (meanage = 65.2 years, SD = 4.5).
Linear regression analyses estimated associations of bereavement reported between March and October, 2020 with subsequent psychological distress between January and October 2021, adjusting for sociodemographic and prepandemic depression symptoms. Secondary models examined associations between memorial attendance and psychological distress.
Bereavement during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with higher psychological distress (adjusted β = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.15, 0.26) assessed over the next year. Among the bereaved, memorial attendance was associated with lower psychological distress (in-person: adjusted β = −0.41, 95% CI: −0.53, −0.29; online: adjusted β = −0.24, 95% CI: −0.46, -−0.02).
Attending memorials was associated with lower subsequent psychological distress among bereaved older females.