PURPOSE:
To estimate the prevalence of Grieving, risk for Complicated Grieving, and Complicated Grieving in the primary care setting.
METHODS:
Retrospective epidemiological study, analyzing data from electronic health records (EHR).
FINDINGS:
A total of 84% of the 9,063 records had diagnostic labels without defining characteristics, related factors, or risk factors. A larger frequency of complicated grieving was found in deceased mourners.
CONCLUSIONS:
The grieving epidemiology opens new chances for the research using data from EHR.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:
The adequacy of the records is essential to develop a profile of the patient at risk of complications after the loss. This research is an important step to build an epidemiological basis for nursing diagnosis of grieving in the primary health care setting.
