Excess Mortality by Individual and Spousal Education for Recent and Long-Term Widowed

OBJECTIVES: The loss of a spouse is followed by a dramatic but short-lived increase in the mortality risk of the survivor. Contrary to expectations, several studies have found this increase to be larger among those with high education. Having a spouse with high education is associated with lower mortality, which suggests that losing a spouse with high education means the loss of a stronger protective factor than losing a spouse with low education. This may disproportionately affect the high educated because of educational homogamy. METHODS: We use Swedish total population registers to construct an open cohort of 1,842,487 married individuals aged 60–89 during 2007–2016, observing 239,276 transitions into widowhood and 277,946 deaths. We use Poisson regression to estimate relative and absolute mortality risks by own and spousal education among the married and recent and long-term widows. RESULTS: We find an absolute increase in mortality risk, concentrated to the first 6 months of widowhood across all educational strata. The relative increase in mortality risk is larger in higher educational strata. Losing a spouse with high education is associated with higher excess mortality, which attenuates this difference. DISCUSSION: When considering the timing and the absolute level of excess mortality, we find that the overall patterns of excess mortality are similar across educational strata. We argue that widowhood has a dramatic impact on health, regardless of education.