Table 4.

Protective and risk factors of bereavement outcomes

Protective factors
Family members related	• Personal medical disease history [50] • Religious belief [51] • Education [51] • Reporting higher subjective caregiving burden just before patient death [52] • Longer duration of caring for patients [50, 51]
Patients related	• Being cared for on the hospice ward [50, 53]
Social related	• Higher income [51] • Good family support [51] • Perceived good social support [51, 52]
Risk factors
Family members related	• Female [50, 51, 53] • Older age [51] • Educational level [49] • No religious belief [50] • Suffering their own medical disease [51] • Having a history of mood co-morbidity [50] • Suffering severe depressive symptoms before the death [52] • Good or very good intimacy relationship with patients [53] • The perception that the patient had unfinished business [49] • Perceived a more difficult dying process and death [52] • Less prepared for death [52]
Patients related	• Younger age [53] • Receiving palliative sedation therapy [53]
Other	• Spouse or parents-children relationship [50, 51] • Unavailable family support [50]