Table 1.

Characteristics of the study population, born in Sweden during 1973–1982

	Non-bereaved	Bereaved
		Index person age at time of sibling death
		Ages 0–18	0–5 years	6–11 years	12–18 years
Characteristic (%)
No. of individuals (%)	693,284 (98.9)	7986 (1.14)	3527 (0.50)	2164 (0.31)	2295 (0.33)
Sex
Men	51.8	52.4	52.2	53.4	51.8
Women	48.2	47.6	47.8	46.6	48.2
Sibling age at death (years)
0–1	–	48.6	76.2	47.9	7.1
> 1	–	51.4	23.8	52.1	92.9
Sibling cause of death
Natural	–	73.4	88.2	74.4	49.9
External	–	26.5	11.8	25.6	50.2
Number of siblings
1	55.2	16.2	11.0	13.6	26.6
2	32.0	37.1	39.8	31.9	37.7
> 2	12.8	46.8	49.2	54.5	35.8
Parental country of birth
Sweden	87.1	83.6	85.0	84.7	80.3
Mixed	8.3	4.3	8.5	8.2	11.4
Other European	3.3	2.9	3.9	3.7	5.5
Non-European	1.4	9.2	2.6	3.4	2.8
Parent’s highest education
Compulsory school	12.4	16.4	15.4	17.0	17.7
Secondary school	48.7	49.6	48.5	49.2	51.6
University	38.9	34.0	36.1	33.8	30.8
Geographic residency
City	29.4	26.8	27.9	26.9	25.1
Town	49.0	48.2	47.1	48.3	49.8
Rural	21.7	25.0	25.0	24.9	25.2
Indicators of psychosocial problems in the family
Mother psychiatric disorder	3.3	5.0	4.1	5.6	5.8
Mother substance abuse	0.5	0.7	0.6	0.8	0.9
Mother severe criminality	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.4
Father psychiatric disorder	2.7	3.9	3.5	3.9	4.4
Father substance abuse	1.6	2.6	2.5	2.3	2.9
Father severe criminality	2.9	4.7	4.7	3.7	5.7