英国约克大学的Mairi Harper博士及其同事研究发现，婴儿死产或在1岁以内死亡的父母，在10年内死亡或丧偶的几率比无此类遭遇的父母增加4倍。这项研究发表于《英国医学杂志-支持与姑息治疗》(BMJ Support Palliat Care)在线版上。
遭遇丧亲之痛的人免疫系统和心血管功能会出现明显异常。
既往研究提示，丧亲可影响免疫和心脏功能。为此，Harper博士等人开展研究，试图了解婴儿早夭是否也会损害父母的健康。研究分为2部分，首先从苏格兰纵向研究数据库中选取1991~2001年期间所有曾分娩、发生死产或婴儿死亡的28,928名妇女；第二部分研究则从全国统计学纵向研究中纳入1971、1981、1991和2001年人口普查的数据。
第一部分研究结果显示，在738名遭遇婴儿死产或早夭的父母中，有15名(2.03%)在丧亲到2006年期间死亡或丧偶。而在未丧亲的50,132名父母中，这一比例仅为0.95%(482名)，危险比(RR)为2.11，95%置信区间(CI)为1.27~3.52。
在第二部分研究中，研究者发现根据历次人口普查的数据，丧亲父母的10年死亡率均明显高于未丧亲者：1971~1981年，14.0% vs. 11.3%(RR，1.24)；1981~1991年，6.0% vs. 4.0%(RR，1.50)；1991~2001年，6.0% vs. 1.3%(RR，4.74)。婴儿早夭对较年轻的母亲打击更大：与未丧亲的同龄母亲相比，25岁母亲丧亲后的死亡风险增加50%，35岁母亲的死亡风险增加20%(均P<0.005)。婴儿早夭的经历对父亲的健康同样有着明显的伤害。
哥伦比亚大学的Katherine Shear博士评论指出，遭遇丧亲之痛的人容易借酒消愁甚至产生自杀念头和行为，其免疫系统和心血管功能也会出现明显异常。遭遇婴儿早夭的父母难以避免地会出现死亡风险增加，应当对这一现象给予足够重视。既往研究显示，多达60%的父母在孩子早夭18个月后仍然难以从悲痛中解脱出来，Shear博士称之为“复杂性悲伤”。她建议，对丧亲者提供咨询服务的医务人员应当接受专门培训以更好地认识和处理“复杂性悲伤”。
生物探索推荐英文论文摘要：
Increased mortality in parents bereaved in the first year of their child's life
Objective To identify the relative risk (RR) of mortality in bereaved parents compared with non-bereaved counterparts.
Design Retrospective data linkage study.
Setting United Kingdom, 1971–2006.
Participants A random sample from death registrations (5%) of parents who had a live birth where the infant lived beyond its first year of life (non-bereaved parents) and parents who had experienced a stillbirth or the death of a child in its first year of life (bereaved parents) between 1971 and 2006.
Main outcome measures Death or widowhood of the parent.
Results Bereaved parents in Scotland (n=738) were more than twice as likely to die in the first 15 years after their child's death than non-bereaved parents (n=50 132), p<0.005. Bereaved mothers in England and Wales (n=481) were more than four times as likely to die in the first 15 years after their child's birth than non-bereaved parents (n=30 956), p<0.001. The mortality risk for bereaved mothers compared with non-bereaved mothers, followed up for 25 years after death, was 1.5 (bereaved n=745, non-bereaved n=36 434), p<0.005. When followed up for 35 years, the risk of mortality for bereaved mothers (n=1120) was 1.2 times that of non-bereaved mothers (n=36 062), p<0.005.
Conclusions Bereaved parents who experience stillbirth or infant death have markedly increased mortality compared with non-bereaved parents, up to 25 years (mean) after the death of their child. However, the RR reduces over time.
