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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Sep 25.
Published in final edited form as: Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Jun;38(6):964–972. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00087

EXHIBIT 4.

Postbereavement outcomes for surviving spouses of married decedents who required assistance, by caregiving status, 2000–14

Solo
caregivers		 Supported
caregivers		 Odds ratio
(n = 626) (n = 389) Model 1a Model 2b
Depressionc 39.46% 41.55% 1.05 1.05
Self-reported health poor or fair 32.91 38.40 0.81 0.96
ADL dependent 6.07 12.34*** 0.47*** 0.67
IADL dependent 15.20 23.65*** 0.73 0.95
Hospitalizations in past 2 years 29.70 36.95** 0.74** 0.76
Nursing home residentd 2.40 2.57 0.69 0.93
Spouse died within 12 months of decedent deathd 3.60 5.12 0.68 0.83

SOURCE Authors’ analysis of the Health and Retirement Study core interviews for 2000–14 and exit interviews for 2002–14. NOTES Significance refers to the difference between solo and supported caregivers.The difference in percentages is based on chi-square analyses.

a

Logistic regression that controlled for dependent variable status before bereavement only.

b

Logistic regression that controlled for surviving spouse’s age, sex, race/ethnicity, depression, self-rated health, hospitalizations, and activity of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) dependence before bereavement; and decedent’s Medicaid status, dementia status, presence of children within ten miles, and hours of help received from all sources before bereavement.

c

Defined as a score of 3 or more on the eight-item Center for Epidemologic Studies Depression Scale.

d

Because surviving spouses co-resided with their partner before bereavement, spousal death and nursing home status models did not control for prebereavement status.

**

p < 0.05

***

p< 0.01