Broken Heart Syndrome
Broken Heart: A Statistical Study of Increased Mortality among Widowers
Introduction
The article Broken Heart: A Statistical Study of Increased Mortality among Widowers by Parkes, Benjamin, and Fitzgerald was published in the British Medical Journal in 1969. The authors goal was to determine if there was any validity to the “broken heart syndrome” and to discover what the actual mortality rate in connection with the “broken heart syndrome”. The population of this study included widowers 55 years of age and older and the sample used was 4,486 widowers 55 years of age and older. The study was completely observation as the men were followed by punch cards of the N.H.S. Central register that when tagged automatically reported information regarding age, …show more content…
The tables and graphs used were appropriate for the study as the table listed the information that was collected and the graphs provided a visual aid to the information. The complete presentation of the study was clear and concise for the goal the authors were pursuing. They described the cause of death of both the wives and widowers for comparison and use of explanation for the mortality rate. The study concluded that while the in the first six months the mortality rate does increase there are serval various explanations as to the actual cause of death. The author’s listed out five possible practical implications to the study (1) The average age of widowers in any age group is about one year older than the average age of married men within the same age group. This might explain up to a quarter of the excess overall mortality among widowers, (2) Widowers may be under-enumerated in the census, (3) Widowers may be over-enumerated in the deaths, (4) It is possible that only the healthier widowers remarry. Since widowers who remarry are not removed from our cohort we may be studying a population who are fitter than the general
Introduction
The article Broken Heart: A Statistical Study of Increased Mortality among Widowers by Parkes, Benjamin, and Fitzgerald was published in the British Medical Journal in 1969. The authors goal was to determine if there was any validity to the “broken heart syndrome” and to discover what the actual mortality rate in connection with the “broken heart syndrome”. The population of this study included widowers 55 years of age and older and the sample used was 4,486 widowers 55 years of age and older. The study was completely observation as the men were followed by punch cards of the N.H.S. Central register that when tagged automatically reported information regarding age, …show more content…
The tables and graphs used were appropriate for the study as the table listed the information that was collected and the graphs provided a visual aid to the information. The complete presentation of the study was clear and concise for the goal the authors were pursuing. They described the cause of death of both the wives and widowers for comparison and use of explanation for the mortality rate. The study concluded that while the in the first six months the mortality rate does increase there are serval various explanations as to the actual cause of death. The author’s listed out five possible practical implications to the study (1) The average age of widowers in any age group is about one year older than the average age of married men within the same age group. This might explain up to a quarter of the excess overall mortality among widowers, (2) Widowers may be under-enumerated in the census, (3) Widowers may be over-enumerated in the deaths, (4) It is possible that only the healthier widowers remarry. Since widowers who remarry are not removed from our cohort we may be studying a population who are fitter than the general