Mortality among lone mothers in Sweden: a population study

Background An increasing number of lone mothers are experiencing financial and health disadvantages. Our aim was to assess mortality among lone mother s compared with mothers with partners. Methods In this population-based study, overall and cause-specific mortalit y, between 1991 and 1995, was estimated for 90 111 lone mothers and 622 368 mothers with partners from data collected in the Swedish Population and Ho using Census 1990. We estimated relative risks by Poisson regression, adjus ted for socioeconomic status, and, to handle health-selection effects, we a djusted for previous inpatient history from 1987 to 1990. Findings Lone mothers showed an almost 70% higher premature risk of death t han mothers with partners. The excess risk remained significantly increased (relative risk 1.2 [95% CI 1.1-1.4]) after adjustments for socioeconomic s tatus and previous severe somatic and psychiatric inpatient history. Increa sed mortality was especially pronounced for suicides (2.2 [1.5-3.1]), viole nce (3.0 [0.9-10.6]), and alcohol-related mortality (2.4 [1.4-4.1]) among m others who were without a partner in 1985 and in 1990. Interpretation The increase of lone mothers in society shows financial, soc ial, and health disadvantages. Nevertheless, the increased mortality risk o f lone mothers seems to be partly independent of socioeconomic status and h ealth selection into lone motherhood. For long-term lone mothers the risks may be underestimated when adjusting for selection bias by taking hospital discharge history into account, since these events may be part of the conse quences of the stress of lone motherhood.