Because women die at an older age than men, and marry men older than themselves, widows outnumber widowers and the average woman can expect to survive her husband by five to six years. In fact, widows make up a substantial proportion of the elderly population. In this paper the current state of our knowledge of the reaction to bereavement in the elderly will be reviewed and its implications for the provision of services considered.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Colin Murray Parkes (1997) studied this question.