Abstract
Using a self-administered questionnaire, we compared the prevalence of complicated grief in family members of patients who had died in the emergency department (n=49) or ICU (n=156) and those of patients who had died in the general ward (n=432). Participants were community-dwelling individuals (aged 40-79 years) who had experienced bereavement within the past 10 years. Complicated grief was assessed using the brief grief questionnaire. There were 3 (6%) emergency-department-bereaved, 5 (3%) ICU-bereaved, and 10 (2%) general ward-bereaved individuals with complicated grief, while 11 (22%), 37 (24%), and 99 (23%) in these groups had subthreshold complicated grief, respectively. Thus, prevalence of complicated grief did not significantly differ between groups. The emergency- and ICU-bereaved showed significant differences from the general ward-bereaved in cause of death and whether the death was expected. These results imply that these two variables did not affect prevalence.
