Mortality in bereaved skin cancer patients
New study results show that melanoma patients who have lost their partner have a higher risk of dying compared with those who were not bereaved.
In collaboration with colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researchers from Department of Clinical Epidemiology have conducted a series of studies on bereavement and skin diseases.
The latest results show that melanoma patients had a 17% higher risk of dying if their partner had died compared with those who were not bereaved.
Within the first year after melanoma diagnosis, the bereaved were 31% more likely to die from melanoma compared to the non-bereaved. In addition, the bereaved were 12% less likely to be diagnosed with melanoma than those who had not lost their partner; maybe because they do not have someone else to spot signs of skin cancer.
The study is based on almost 5.5 million people in the UK and Denmark and covers a period of 20 years.
The study has just been published in the British Journal of Dermatology and been reported by the Daily Mail, among others.