Factors Associated With Higher Levels of Grief and Support Needs Among People Bereaved During the Pandemic: Results from a National Online Survey

  1. Lucy E. Selman
  2. Damian J. J. Farnell
  3. Mirella Longo
  4. Silvia Goss
  5. Anna Torrens-Burton
  6. Kathy Seddon
  7. Catriona R. Mayland
  8. Linda Machin
  9. Anthony Byrne
  10. Emily J. Harrop

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Abstract

We identified factors associated with higher levels of grief and support needs among 711 people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK (deaths 16 March 2020-2 January 2021). An online survey assessed grief using the Adult Attitude to Grief (AAG) scale, which calculates an overall index of vulnerability (IOV) (range 0–36), and practical and emotional support needs in 13 domains. Participants’ mean age was 49.5 (SD 12.9); 628 (88.6%) female. Mean age of deceased 72.2 (SD 16.1). 311 (43.8%) deaths were from confirmed/suspected COVID-19. High overall levels of grief and support needs were observed; 28.2% exhibited severe vulnerability (index of vulnerability ≥24). Grief and support needs were higher for close relationships with the deceased (vs. more distant) and reported social isolation and loneliness ( p < 0.001), and lower when age of deceased was above 40–50. Other associated factors were place of death and health professional support post-death ( p < 0.05).

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  1. Version published to 10.1177/00302228221144925
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.02.07.22270593: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: The initial section of the survey requested informed consent and provided data protection information (see Supplementary file 1).
    IRB: Ethical approval: The study was approved by Cardiff University School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee (SMREC 20/59) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and all respondents provided informed consent.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line AuthenticationAuthentication: This questionnaire has previously been validated and psychometrically tested (Sim et al., 2014).

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Study procedure: The survey was administered via Jisc software (JISC, 2021), open 28th August 2020 to 5th January 2021 and disseminated on social and mainstream media and via voluntary sector associations and bereavement support organisations, including organisations representing ethnic minority communities.
    Jisc
    suggested: (JISC, RRID:SCR_011331)
    All calculations were carried out using SPSS V26.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Strengths and weaknesses: The study sample was large, with good spread across geographical areas, education and deprivation, but relied on voluntary response sampling. The sample was biased towards female and white respondents, despite targeted advertising to men and people from ethnic minority communities. By recruiting mostly online, we were less likely to reach the very old or other digitally marginalised groups. Through subsequent qualitative interviews, we explore in depth the experiences of people from communities and groups less well represented in the survey. Convenience sampling might have resulted in more people with negative experiences completing the survey. Despite these limitations, group sizes were sufficient to enable comparisons (although not to the level of specific ethnic groups) and, while not providing population-level prevalence data, the sample does enable identification of risk factors to inform future practice and policy. Implications for research: This study includes follow-up surveys at c.7 and 13 months post-death, longitudinal qualitative interviews and research exploring the impact of the pandemic on voluntary sector bereavement services and their response. Further research exploring the needs of bereaved people from minority ethnic backgrounds, same-sex couple, men, children and young people and longer-term bereavement experiences is also required, particularly population-based studies to establish the prevalence of PGD and other poor outcomes a...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2022.02.07.22270593v1 on medRxiv