Prolonged Grief and Bereavement Supports Within a Caregiver Population Who Transition Through a Palliative Care Program in British Columbia, Canada.
Elizabeth X Wu, Andrew Collins, Shelley Briggs and 3 others
PMID 34259023WHAT IT FOUND
At 12 months after loss, 4.7% of bereaved caregivers who completed the PG-13 met criteria for prolonged grief disorder.
Helpful supports were grouped into formal services, informal relationships, and self-care strategies.
Key findings
01At 12 months post-loss, 10 of 212 caregivers who completed the PG-13 were high risk for prolonged grief disorder.
02Of 215 caregivers who completed the Brief Resilience Scale, 48.4% had low resilience, 51.6% had normal resilience, and 0% had high resilience.
03Caregivers' open-ended responses about helpful bereavement supports were grouped into formal supports, informal supports, and self-care strategies.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 12.1% of invited caregivers replied initially, and 224 of 427 eligible caregivers replied at 12 months, so the results may reflect those who chose to respond. The first survey was not validated, although the prolonged grief and resilience scales were validated tools. Many eligible caregivers did not complete the 12-month survey, and participants could omit questions, so some data were missing. Most respondents were female (71.4%) and Caucasian (85.6%), highly educated, English-speaking, and computer literate, so the findings may not represent other caregivers. The study did not collect information on non-respondents, so their experiences are unknown. The study did not investigate cause of death, and the paper notes that unnatural death and cancer death have been associated with higher grief risk. The study had no comparison group and did not test whether bereavement supports reduced grief.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 4.7% prolonged grief rate as proof that palliative care prevents grief. The study had no comparison group, relied on self-selected respondents, and many invited caregivers did not take part.