July 28, 2021 | Press Release

Mortality Risk After Widowhood: For Some Immigrants, It Is Even Higher

The study is the first large-scale investigation of whether widowhood has different impacts on the health of foreign- and native-born persons. © Dreamstime.com/Dmytro Zinkevych

Do persons with an immigrant background have an even higher risk of dying after being widowed than native-born persons? An international team including MPIDR researchers answers this question in their recent study.

In an analysis of more than two million Danes and almost 60,000 immigrants to Denmark, an international team including research scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, found that the elevated risk of death after being widowed is in some cases even higher for immigrants than for native Danes. Their study was published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Science.

“Minority groups may be especially vulnerable to the effects of stressful life events”

The study, which included data on married native-born Danes and married immigrants age 50+ from ten different countries from 1980 to 2014, is the first large-scale investigation of whether widowhood has different impacts on the health of foreign- and native-born persons. The findings partially support the authors’ hypothesis that widowhood would take an even greater toll on foreign- than native-born persons because of immigrants’ social marginalization and health challenges.

“Our findings add to research highlighting that minority and disadvantaged groups may be especially vulnerable to the effects of major stressful life events,” says lead author Jennifer Caputo, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago and former MPIDR researcher.

Diversity among immigrants linked to variation in mortality effects

The largest groups of immigrants to Denmark were from Germany, followed by former Yugoslavia, Sweden, and Norway. Persons from Turkey, Vietnam and former Yugoslavia tended to be socioeconomically disadvantaged relative to other immigrants. They were especially likely to be married to someone with the same national background.

Findings revealed variation in the mortality effects of widowhood by country of origin. Turkish-origin women showed particularly high risk of dying after their spouse at all follow-up periods. “We were unable to pinpoint why some immigrant groups had higher risk of dying after experiencing widowhood than others using these data,” says Anna Oksuzyan, MPIDR researcher. “However, differences in cultural backgrounds as well as social and economic resources are likely to play a role.”

Original Publication

Caputo, J., Li, P., Kühn, M., Brønnum-Hansen, H., Oksuzyan, A.: Immigration Background and the Widowhood Effect on Mortality. Journal of Gerontology (2021). DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbab090