A qualitative study on the impact of death during COVID-19: Thoughts and feelings of Portuguese bereaved adults

As a global threat, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an important factor in increasing death rate worldwide. As the virus spreads across international borders, it causes severe illness, death, and disruptions in our daily lives. Death and dying rituals and customs aid bereaved people in overcoming the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 17; no. 4; p. e0265284
Main Authors: Aguiar, Ana, Pinto, Marta, Duarte, Raquel
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 07.04.2022
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Adult
Adults
Anxiety
Bereavement
Biology and Life Sciences
Content analysis
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Customs
Data collection
Death
Death & dying
Depression, Mental
Epidemics
Female
Grief
Health aspects
Humans
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mental depression
Mortality
Pandemics
Portugal - epidemiology
Psychological aspects
Qualitative analysis
Qualitative research
Questionnaires
Research and Analysis Methods
Respiratory diseases
Risk factors
Social aspects
Social networks
Social research
Social Sciences
Viral diseases
Viruses
Portugal
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:As a global threat, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an important factor in increasing death rate worldwide. As the virus spreads across international borders, it causes severe illness, death, and disruptions in our daily lives. Death and dying rituals and customs aid bereaved people in overcoming their grief. In this sense, the purpose of this study was to access thoughts and feelings of Portuguese adults and the impact of the loss in daily life during COVID-19. A structured online questionnaire was applied (snowball sampling) and qualitative data on death and mourning namely the impact of the loss in daily life, was collected. One hundred and sixty-six individuals have lost someone since the beginning of the pandemic and were included. Analysis was inspired by Braun and Clark’s content analysis. Most participants were female (66.9%), the median age was of 37.3 years, and 70.5% had a high education degree. Moreover, 30.7% of the participants present anxiety symptoms and 10.2% depression symptoms. The answers of studied participants gave insights on the extent of the loss in day-to-day life and four thematic themes were found: (1) The perceived inadequacy of the funeral rituality, (2) Sadness, fear and loneliness, (3) Changes in sleeping and concentration and increased levels of anxiety and (4) Concerns regarding the pandemic situation. We found a high prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms in the study sample. Also, the changes in post mortem procedures, have shown to be of great importance in the mourning procedure of the participants.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0265284