Center of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States; Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden
Center of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States; Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Sigrún H Lund
deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland
Katja Fall
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden; Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medical Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
Fang Fang
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden
Þórður Kristjánsson
deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland
Daníel Guðbjartsson
deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland; School of Engineering and Natural, Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Agnar Helgason
deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland; Department of Anthropology, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Kári Stefánsson
deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland; Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
While the rare occurrence of child loss is accompanied by reduced life expectancy of parents in contemporary affluent populations, its impact in developing societies with high child mortality rates is unclear. We identified all parents in Iceland born 1800–1996 and compared the mortality rates of 47,711 parents who lost a child to those of their siblings (N = 126,342) who did not. The proportion of parents who experienced child loss decreased from 61.1% of those born 1800–1880 to 5.2% of those born after 1930. Child loss was consistently associated with increased rate of maternal, but not paternal, death before the age of 50 across all parent birth cohorts; the relative increase in maternal mortality rate ranged from 35% among mothers born 1800–1930 to 64% among mothers born after 1930. The loss of a child poses a threat to the survival of young mothers, even during periods of high infant mortality rates.
