Characteristics of participants by type of bereavement exposure
| Participants bereaved by: | Sudden natural death (n=2106) | Sudden unnatural death (n=712) | Suicide (n=614) | Total (n=3432) | p Value* |
| Sociodemographic characteristics | |||||
| Gender (n (%))† | |||||
| Female | 1709 (81) | 576 (81) | 499 (81) | 2784 (81) | 0.955 |
| Missing | 1 (<1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (<1) | |
| Age of participant† mean (SD) | 24.9 (6.3) | 25.2 (6.3) | 25.2 (6.0) | 25.0 (6.3) | 0.069 |
| Self-defined ethnicity (n (%)) | |||||
| White | 1877 (89) | 645 (91) | 562 (92) | 3084 (90) | 0.102 |
| Missing | 1 (<1) | 2 (<1) | 0 (0) | 3 (<1) | |
| Socioeconomic status (n (%))†‡ | |||||
| Social classes 1.1 and 1.2 | 603 (29) | 224 (32) | 176 (29) | 1003 (29) | 0.604 |
| Social class 2 | 684 (33) | 234 (33) | 204 (33) | 1122 (33) | |
| Social class 3 | 259 (12) | 77 (11) | 68 (11) | 404 (12) | |
| Social class 4 | 90 (4) | 34 (5) | 32 (5) | 156 (5) | |
| Social classes 5, 6, 7 and 9 | 409 (19) | 115 (16) | 113 (18) | 638 (19) | |
| Missing | 61 (3) | 27 (4) | 21 (3) | 109 (3) | |
| Educational status (n (%)) | |||||
| Attained up to secondary school leaving qualification | 964 (46) | 286 (40) | 255 (42) | 1505 (44) | 0.035 |
| Attained degree or above | 1136 (54) | 424 (60) | 359 (59) | 1919 (56) | |
| Missing | 6 (<1) | 2 (<1) | 0 (0) | 8 (<1) | |
| Student status (n (%)) | |||||
| Student | 1797 (85) | 613 (86) | 526 (86) | 2936 (86) | 0.905 |
| Staff | 253 (12) | 78 (11) | 68 (11) | 399 (12) | |
| Both | 55 (3) | 21 (3) | 20 (3) | 96 (3) | |
| Missing | 1 (<1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (<1) | |
| Measure of social support (n (%))§ | |||||
| No lack of perceived social support | 1234 (59) | 411 (58) | 345 (56) | 1990 (58) | 0.297 |
| Moderate lack of perceived social support | 549 (26) | 197 (28) | 168 (27) | 914 (27) | |
| Severe lack of perceived social support | 323 (15) | 102 (14) | 100 (16) | 525 (15) | |
| Missing | 0 (0) | 2 (<1) | 1 (<1) | 3 (<1) | |
| Clinical characteristics | |||||
| Personality disorder screen positive (n (%))¶ | |||||
| Yes | 743 (35) | 227 (32) | 225 (37) | 1195 (35) | 0.071 |
| Missing | 131 (6) | 31 (4) | 33 (5) | 195 (6) | |
| Family history of psychiatric problems (n (%)) | |||||
| Yes | 1243 (59) | 434 (61) | 412 (67) | 2089 (61) | 0.005 |
| Missing | 153 (7) | 41 (6) | 39 (6) | 233 (7) | |
| Other family history of suicide (n (%))† | |||||
| Yes | 123 (6) | 41 (6) | 53 (7) | 217 (6) | 0.071 |
| Missing | 158 (8) | 43 (6) | 40 (7) | 241 (7) | |
| Preloss non-suicidal self-harm and suicide attempt (n (%))† | |||||
| Yes | 434 (21) | 134 (19) | 150 (24) | 718 (21) | 0.050 |
| Missing | 157 (8) | 41 (6) | 41 (7) | 239 (7) | |
| Preloss depression (n (%))† | |||||
| Yes | 370 (18) | 129 (18) | 143 (23) | 642 (19) | 0.015 |
| Missing | 85 (4) | 21 (3) | 24 (4) | 130 (4) | |
| Characteristics of the bereavement | |||||
| Kinship to the deceased (n (%))† | |||||
| Blood relative | 1786 (85) | 351 (49) | 296 (48) | 2433 (71) | <0.001 |
| Unrelated | 313 (15) | 356 (50) | 317 (52) | 980 (29) | |
| Missing | 7 (<1) | 5 (1) | 1 (<1) | 13 (<1) | |
| Age of the deceased (mean (SD)) | 55.1 (21.5) | 31.0 (17.4) | 31.9 (15.2) | 45.9 (22.8) | <0.001 |
| Time since bereavement† (mean (SD)) | 4.8 (5.3) | 5.3 (5.4) | 5.1 (5.0) | 5.0 (5.3) | 0.140 |
| Bereavement in last 2 years (n (%)) | |||||
| Yes | 707 (34) | 186 (26) | 168 (27) | 1061 (31) | <0.001 |
| No | 1399 (67) | 526 (74) | 446 (73) | 2371 (69) | |
| GEQ stigma subscale score (mean (SD)) | 11.9 (3.8) | 12.3 (4.0) | 14.0 (4.3) | 12.3 (4.0) | <0.001 |
| Time point rated as worst stage after the loss (n (%)) | |||||
| Within a week | 560 (25) | 156 (22) | 148 (24) | 824 (24) | 0.112 |
| Up to a month | 330 (16) | 92 (13) | 81 (13) | 503 (15) | |
| Up to 6 months | 330 (16) | 122 (17) | 112 (18) | 564 (16) | |
| Up to a year | 359 (17) | 147 (21) | 101 (17) | 607 (18) | |
| Up to 3 years | 216 (10) | 80 (11) | 69 (11) | 365 (11) | |
| Over 3 years | 181 (9) | 62 (9) | 59 (10) | 302 (9) | |
| Missing | 170 (8) | 53 (8) | 44 (7) | 267 (8) | |
| Bereavement support | |||||
| Any formal/informal support†† received after bereavement (n (%)) | |||||
| Yes | 1573 (75) | 558 (78) | 441 (72) | 2572 (75) | 0.031 |
| No | 446 (21) | 131 (18) | 148 (24) | 725 (21) | |
| Missing | 87 (4) | 23 (3) | 25 (4) | 135 (4) | |
| Formal/informal support perceived to be valuable (of n=2572) (n (%)) | |||||
| Yes | 1335 (85) | 464 (83) | 374 (85) | 2173 (85) | 0.621 |
| No | 216 (14) | 85 (15) | 59 (13) | 360 (14) | |
| Missing | 22 (1) | 9 (2) | 8 (2) | 39 (2) | |
| Type of formal/informal support received (of n=2572) (n (%)) | |||||
| Formal only | 217 (14) | 76 (14) | 68 (15) | 361 (14) | 0.922 |
| Informal only | 796 (51) | 286 (51) | 220 (50) | 1302 (51) | |
| Both formal and informal | 560 (36) | 196 (35) | 153 (35) | 909 (35) | |
| Point at which any valuable support received after loss (n (%)) | |||||
| Within a day | 623 (30) | 234 (33) | 150 (24) | 1007 (29) | 0.001 |
| Within a week | 290 (14) | 72 (10) | 69 (11) | 431 (13) | |
| Within a month | 154 (7) | 50 (7) | 44 (7) | 248 (7) | |
| Within 6 months | 117 (6) | 35 (5) | 46 (8) | 198 (6) | |
| Within a year | 58 (3) | 31 (4) | 15 (2) | 104 (3) | |
| Over a year | 124 (6) | 49 (7) | 58 (10) | 231 (7) | |
| At no point | 632 (30) | 211 (30) | 198 (32) | 1041 (30) | |
| Missing | 108 (5) | 30 (4) | 34 (6) | 172 (5) | |
| Whether help sought after self-harm postbereavement (n (%))‡‡ | |||||
| Yes | 42/112 (38) | 8/42 (19) | 19/56 (34) | 69/210 (33) | 0.093 |
| No | 70/112 (63) | 34/42 (81) | 37/56 (66) | 141/210 (67) | |
*Significance threshold of p=0.05; not adjusted for multiple testing.
†Prespecified confounding variable used in adjusted models.
‡Socioeconomic status using the five categories from UK Office for National Statistics.
§Measure of social support from Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey.25
¶Self-report Standardized Assessment of Personality-abbreviated Scale (SAPAS-SR) screen for personality disorder.33
††Excluding self-help.
‡‡In subsample of n=210 who had made a suicide attempt since the index bereavement.
GEQ, Grief Experience Questionnaire.