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The relationship between familial deaths and one's own mortality among Black Americans

Familial loss increases midlife mortality risk among Black Americans

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the life expectancy gap between Black and White Americans was four years. After the pandemic, the life expectancy gap is six years shorter for Black Americans. This indicates the increased risk of premature mortality in Black Americans, as well as their “disproportionate exposure to the premature death of family and household members at comparatively younger ages than white Americans.” 

Research indicates that the loss of a loved one can lead to increased risks of loneliness, grief, and stress, which can affect health and longevity. However, there is not currently much research to examine the exposure to loss among Black individuals and their own mortality. To assess this exposure, Faculty Associate Kerry Green and colleagues conducted a study that investigates the relationship between familial loss and mortality. Multiple dimensions of familial death experiences are examined, “including whether the accumulation and timing of exposure to familial death over the life course are particularly detrimental to one’s mortality risk, as well as whether the type of relationship is a source of variability in mortality risk.” Green and colleagues also focus on two interrelated questions:

  1. “Is exposure to familial death earlier in life associated with premature mortality risk in midlife?

  2. Does this relationship differ based on the accumulation, timing, and/or type of familial loss?”

To answer these questions and assess exposures, longitudinal data from the Woodlawn Study, a community cohort of Black Americans assessed at four time points in life from ages 6 to 42, was used. The measures assessed were mortality, exposure to familial death, accumulation of familial death, timing of parental death and type of familial loss. 

The results of this study demonstrate that experiencing multiple familial losses is associated with midlife mortality risk. Of particular note, the type of relationship lost can have distinct effects, as the loss of a mother or sibling can significantly increase the risk of midlife mortality. The loss of a mother demonstrates age-graded effects on midlife mortality, as experiencing the death during young adult life has a higher mortality risk than experiencing the death during childhood or adolescence. The loss of a mother as damaging may stem from the fact that Black men have been dying ~7 years younger than Black women, resulting in a greater chance that a mother’s death is the second parental loss, which produces exponential effects. 

This study advances research on racial health disparities by examining how experiencing familial death relates to one’s own mortality risk. The findings demonstrate that “interventions to address disparities in premature mortality may have potential compounding effects by not only saving one life but multiple lives through the prevention of grief and potential loss of life among loved ones.” Further research can examine the mechanisms that connect familial loss to mortality among Black Americans, as well as potential moderators. The role of positive coping behaviors and increased awareness of one’s health in the wake of a familial death could also be explored, especially in relation to various causes of familial death.



Doherty, E.E., Green, K.M., Bugbee, B.A. (2024). "From One Death to Another: The Relationship between Familial Deaths and One’s Own Mortality Risk Among an Urban Black American Cohort." Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117489
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