Becoming a widow or widower can be excruciatingly difficult. Along with deep sadness, feeling lost and having fears about the future, the death of a partner can take a serious toll on the surviving spouse’s physical health. For older adults, the loss can even cause a phenomenon known as the “widowhood effect,” which puts them at a higher risk of dying themselves, particularly within the first three months of grief.

“The widowhood effect is the observation that when a spouse dies, the surviving spouse has an elevated risk of death,” Dawn Carr, professor of sociology and director of the Claude Pepper Center in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy at Florida State University , tells Yahoo Life.

Carr quickly points out that this outcome has been observed only among the older population. “We don’t see these effects in the same way with younger people,” she says.

So what causes the widowhood effect? And what can you do to help prevent it? Experts explain.

Older adults with health conditions have a higher risk

New research shows that entering widowhood later in life can lead to health complications among adults living with a chronic disease, which can cause the widowhood effect.

According to a September 2024 study published in the journal JAMA Network, adults age 65 and older who had already been diagnosed with either dementia, cancer or organ failure were shown to have a higher risk of increased functional decline and increased mortality after losing their spouse compared to others in the same age range who were not managing these health conditions.

Previous research published in the Journal of Public Health also found that adults age 50 and older had a 66% increased mortality risk within the first 90 days of becoming a widow or widower.

What causes the widowhood effect?

Several factors can increase the odds of experiencing the widowhood effect, says Carr. For starters, if someone has been married for decades, their sense of identity may have been wrapped up in their other half. “Losing one’s companion can lead to living alone, so one’s social connections can be greatly reduced,” she says.

If the surviving spouse provided care in the final weeks, months or years before their partner died, the enormous responsibility likely took a toll on their physical and mental well-being. “Caregiving is physiologically and emotionally taxing on the body,” Carr says. “Intensive caregiving can be really challenging because someone may also feel they’ve lost their sense of purpose. Their everyday goal was to take care of this other person — and now they no longer have a goal.”

Guilt may add to the widowhood effect too. “It’s worth noting that some people actually feel guilty because they feel relieved,” states Carr. The sense of relief is likely a combination of the end of their spouse’s suffering, along with the end of their enormous task of being a caregiver. “And sometimes this guilt can be really hard to process.”

The link between grief and inflammation

While inflammation is part of the body’s defense mechanisms, long-term inflammation is likely the foundation of most chronic illnesses. According to researchers at Rice University, deep grief may cause dangerously high inflammation that can lead to death. After analyzing nearly 100 blood panels of widows and widowers, the researchers found that the bereaved with elevated grief symptoms showed 17% higher levels of bodily inflammation — while those who landed in the top one-third of the sufferers had more than a 54% higher level of inflammation than those who weren’t expressing as many symptoms.

“When we’re under stress, the body produces what is called an inflammatory response,” Christopher Fagundes, professor of psychological sciences at Rice University and lead author of the study, tells Yahoo Life. “Yet when we’re chronically stressed, the immune cells become desensitized to the anti-inflammatory compensation that the body naturally releases, such as cortisol (a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that mediates the stress response). The immune cells become desensitized in the same way that caffeine wouldn’t affect a coffee drinker nearly as much as it would have the first time they had caffeine — because the body adjusts. So if we’re in an environment with no anti-inflammatory compensation, we become very inflamed.”

Fagundes points out that chronic stress from grief had a stronger impact on the body compared to dealing with common daily stressors, such as sitting in commuter traffic. “We found in our data that interpersonal loss, especially among somebody close to us like our spouse, has a more powerful effect on these properties. We tend to regulate ourselves with our spouses, and when that bond is disrupted, the body basically goes haywire.”

Bereavement can also lead to a change in health behaviors, including poor sleep patterns and dietary choices, which can promote inflammation, notes Fagundes. He adds that depression has been linked to higher levels of inflammation, and those who have buried their spouse are at a higher risk of not only major depression, but also heart attack, stroke and premature mortality. “It is not surprising since heart disease is the No. 1 killer in general,” he states.

Steps to help avoid the widowhood effect

Carr and Fagundes have several strategies people can follow to help protect their health both while still being a spouse’s caregiver and after their partner has passed:

1. Ask for a hand during the caregiving phase. If possible, seek out someone who can take over your duties for a day here and there. “Get help in order to recover and protect your well-being while you’re in the middle of the caregiving process,” advises Carr.

2. Keep the lines of communication open. Even though it can feel tiring, Carr suggests staying in touch with family and friends as you’re in the caregiving role. “Having close ties with others and a supportive network in place is really important for resilience,” says Fagundes. Making that effort is particularly important for men. “Men tend to be horrible at establishing new relationships later in life compared to women,” he adds.

3. Take care of your own health. Make sure to get your physical needs met, says Carr. “Many caregivers are not going to the doctor to take care of themselves and not doing the basics in terms of health care maintenance,” she says. “Get your checkups, get yourself back in your best working order and get back to engaging in meaningful healthy behaviors.” Fagundes emphasizes the importance of eating a healthy diet, maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and exercising regularly, depending on your ability. “If you can keep those three things in place, you will adjust faster naturally,” he says.

4. Create a daily schedule. “Develop a routine and stick to it,” says Fagundes. The reason: Daily routines have been tossed out the window during a time of caregiving and the initial weeks of grief. “I would say to plan out literally every hour of the day for a while,” he continues. “It could include gardening, work, anything. It’s about having some structure.”

5. Learn practical skills. Since it’s natural for a married couple to divide the daily responsibilities within the home, brush up on the skills that you may not have used in decades. For example, if you haven’t cooked in years, sign up for a cooking class. “And as an added benefit, the class would have a social component,” says Fagundes.

6. Adopt a pet. In 2020, Carr and her research team studied the healing power of pets and found that companion animal ownership may buffer against the detrimental consequences of major social losses on psychological health. “If you have a dog in particular, you will be out walking the dog, you will be seeing people on the walk and you will have a sense of purpose because the dog needs you to take care of them,” she explains. “There is also growing evidence that loneliness can be reduced with owning an animal, although it is not a solution for everyone.”

7. Start volunteering. Carr has also done research on the health benefits of volunteerism. “We discovered that older people who did not volunteer before losing their spouse and then started volunteering after the loss of their spouse alleviated loneliness,” she says. “Volunteering is a way to do something meaningful and productive. You’re meeting people, you’re engaged in a cause that matters and you’re thinking of something outside of yourself. Part of loneliness involves being stuck in your own head, yet volunteering can be a replacement for something with purpose.”