TY - JOUR
T1 - Size and composition of family networks of decedents
T2 - A nationwide register-based study
AU - Kristensen, Marie S.
AU - Thygesen, Lau C.
AU - Tay, Djin L.
AU - Kumar, Raj
AU - Grønvold, Mogens
AU - Aldridge, Melissa
AU - Ornstein, Katherine A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Dr. Ornstein was supported by: National Institute on Aging K01AG047923 and the National Palliative Care Research Center. Funding sources had no role in the design, conduct, and analysis of this study or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - Background: Seriously ill individuals rely heavily on family caregivers at the end of life. Yet many do not have family support. Aim: To characterize the size and composition of decedents’ family networks by cause of death, demographic, clinical, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics. Design: A cross-sectional population-level study with data collected from nation-wide registers. Setting/participants: All adults in Denmark born between 1935 and 1998 who died of natural causes between 2009 and 2016 were linked at the time of death to living adult spouses/partners, children, siblings, parents, and grandchildren. Results: Among 175,755 decedents (median age: 68 years, range: 18–81 years), 61% had a partner at the time of death and 78% had at least one adult child. Ten percent of decedents had no identified living adult family members. Decedents with family had a median of five relatives. Males were more likely to have a spouse/partner (65%) than females (56%). While 93% of decedents dying of cancer had adult family, only 70% of individuals dying of dementia had adult family at the time of death. The majority of cancer decedents co-resided or lived within 30 km of family (88%), compared to only 65% of those dying from psychiatric illness. Conclusions: While the majority of adults had an extensive family network at the time of death, a substantial proportion of decedents had no family, suggesting the need for non-family based long-term service and support systems. Assessment of family networks can expand our understanding of the end-of-life caregiving process and inform palliative care delivery.
AB - Background: Seriously ill individuals rely heavily on family caregivers at the end of life. Yet many do not have family support. Aim: To characterize the size and composition of decedents’ family networks by cause of death, demographic, clinical, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics. Design: A cross-sectional population-level study with data collected from nation-wide registers. Setting/participants: All adults in Denmark born between 1935 and 1998 who died of natural causes between 2009 and 2016 were linked at the time of death to living adult spouses/partners, children, siblings, parents, and grandchildren. Results: Among 175,755 decedents (median age: 68 years, range: 18–81 years), 61% had a partner at the time of death and 78% had at least one adult child. Ten percent of decedents had no identified living adult family members. Decedents with family had a median of five relatives. Males were more likely to have a spouse/partner (65%) than females (56%). While 93% of decedents dying of cancer had adult family, only 70% of individuals dying of dementia had adult family at the time of death. The majority of cancer decedents co-resided or lived within 30 km of family (88%), compared to only 65% of those dying from psychiatric illness. Conclusions: While the majority of adults had an extensive family network at the time of death, a substantial proportion of decedents had no family, suggesting the need for non-family based long-term service and support systems. Assessment of family networks can expand our understanding of the end-of-life caregiving process and inform palliative care delivery.
KW - Registries
KW - bereavement
KW - caregivers
KW - family
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104045207&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0269216321998602
DO - 10.1177/0269216321998602
M3 - Article
C2 - 33823696
AN - SCOPUS:85104045207
SN - 0269-2163
VL - 35
SP - 1652
EP - 1662
JO - Palliative Medicine
JF - Palliative Medicine
IS - 9
ER -