Publications by authors named "Bragi Skulason"

Background: According to common practice based on a generally agreed interpretation of Icelandic law on the rights of patients, health care professionals cannot discuss prognosis and treatment with a patient's family without that patient's consent. This limitation poses ethical problems, because research has shown that, in the absence of insight and communication regarding a patient's impending death, patient's significant others may subsequently experience long-term psychological distress. It is also reportedly important for most dying patients to know that health care personnel are comfortable with talking about death and dying.

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Background: The aim of this study was to assess if widowers had an increased mortality rate during the first 6 to 9 years after the death of their wife, compared initially to an age-matched control group and also compared to the general population of Iceland.

Methods: The study base was comprised of all 371 men born in 1924-1969 who were widowed in Iceland in 1999-2001 and 357 controls, married men, who were matched by age and residence.The widowers and controls were followed through the years 2002-2007 using information from Statistics Iceland.

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Background: The aim of this study was to determine if Icelandic widowers might foresee obstacles to responding to a questionnaire on bereavement. Also, we sought to compare the proportion of men reporting obstacles in a telephone interview to the actual response rate in the questionnaire survey.

Methods: The study was part of a nation-wide survey of widowers who lost their wives in 1999, 2000, and 2001.

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