Death of a child and the risk of heart failure: a population‐based cohort study from Denmark and Sweden

摘要

Aims We aimed to investigate whether the death of a child, one of the most severe stressors, is associated with the risk of heart failure (HF). Methods and results We conducted a population‐based cohort study involving parents of live‐born children recorded in the Danish and Swedish Medical Birth Registers during 1973–2016 and 1973–2014, respectively (n?=?6?717?349). We retrieved information on child death, HF diagnosis and sociodemographic characteristics of the parents from several nationwide registries. We performed Poisson regression models to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for HF in relation to bereavement. A total of 129?829 (1.9%) parents lost at least one child during the follow‐up. Bereaved parents had a 35% higher risk of HF than the non‐bereaved (IRR 1.35, 95% CI 1.29–1.41; p?