The objective was to characterize the relation between different sources of school-based social support (friends, peers, and teachers) and bereaved siblings' grief and grief-related growth and to examine whether nonparental sources of social support buffer the effects of low parent support on bereaved siblings. Families (N = 85) were recruited…

Background: Palliative care (PC) is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification, impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems like physical, psychosocial and…

Background: Self-rated health (SRH) has been shown to be predictive of morbidity and mortality. Evidence also shows that SRH is socioeconomically patterned, although this association differs depending on the indicator of socioeconomic status used. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between SRH and financial hardship among…

Purpose: Guided by an explanatory matrix of family conflict at the end of life, the purpose of this article was to examine the correlates and predictors of family conflict reported by 155 spouses and adult children of persons with lung cancer. Design and Methods: A cross-sectional statewide survey of family members of persons who died from lung…

A 20 year retrospective qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the relational impact of choriocarcinoma (a type of gestational cancer) on a couple of child-bearing age. A unique feature to the study was that the primary investigator was the couple's biological son, initiating the first known auto-case study design. Using holistic…

Previous research suggests that caregivers and terminally ill patients face substantial difficulties discussing illness and death. Existing research, however, has focused primarily on the experience of patients. The current study compared responses as well as the relative strength of association between mortality communication, fear of death, and…

In a study designed to examine correlates of cancer-related stigma, 405 college students were assigned randomly to listen to an audiotaped interview in which the target's cancer type and smoking status were manipulated. In the lung cancer conditions, target gender also was manipulated. Social distance and emotional responses differed according to…

Depression at the end of life is a common mental health issue with serious implications for quality of life and decision making. This study investigated the reliability and validity of one of the most frequently used measures of depression, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) in 422 patients with terminal cancer admitted to a palliative…

This article examines the relationship between a woman's childbearing history and her later health and mortality, with primary focus on whether the association between them is due to early and later socioeconomic status. Data are drawn from the Health and Retirement Study birth cohort of 1931-1941. Results indicate that, conditional on reaching…

Place of death was determined for all 58,689 seniors (age greater than or equal to 66 years) in Ontario who died during fiscal year 2001/2002. The relationship of place of death to medical and socio-demographic characteristics was examined using a multinomial logit model. Half (49.2 %) of these individuals died in hospital, 30.5 per cent died in a…

Does psychological distress increase mortality risk? If it does, are women more vulnerable than men to the effect of distress on mortality? Drawing from cumulative disadvantage theory, these questions are addressed with data from a 20-year follow-up of a national sample of adults ages 25-74. Event history analyses were performed to examine…