Mourners’ Dissatisfaction with Funerals May Influence Their Subsequent Medical/Welfare Expenses—A Nationwide Survey in Japan

Carl B. Becker, Yozo Taniyama, Noriko Sasaki, Megumi Kondo-Arita, Shinya Yamada and Kayoko Yamamoto
Additional contact information
Carl B. Becker: Policy Science Unit, School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Yozo Taniyama: Department of Religious Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8576, Japan
Noriko Sasaki: Department of Healthcare Economics and Quality Management, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Megumi Kondo-Arita: Nakayama International Center, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Osaka 569-8686, Japan
Shinya Yamada: National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura 285-8502, Japan
Kayoko Yamamoto: Department of Nursing, Tenri Health Care University, Tenri 632-0018, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Japan’s super-aged mortality rate bereaves millions of people annually, threatening the mental health of the bereaved population. Previous research suggests that participation in satisfying funeral rituals can protect or improve the health of a bereaved population—but pandemic restrictions threaten traditional funeral assemblies. To determine how bereaved mourners’ mental health—and consequent dependence upon medical, pharmaceutical, or social services—are affected by funerals and the aspects of funerals most likely to cause satisfaction or dissatisfaction, we conducted an anonymous nationwide survey across Japan. In total, 1078 bereaved Japanese responded; we analyzed their responses by comparing the 106 citing funeral dissatisfaction with the 972 citing no dissatisfaction. The cohort showing greatest satisfaction with funerals tended to be older widows or parents who lost children; they showed greater grief but spent less on medical, pharmaceutical, or social services thereafter than the dissatisfied. Conversely, mourners with the greatest dis satisfaction toward their interactions with funeral directors and Buddhist priests tended to spend more on medical, pharmaceutical, or social services after bereavement. We conclude that training or education to improve priests’ and funeral directors’ interactions may reduce dissatisfaction with funerals, potentially reducing subsequent costs of medical, pharmaceutical, or social services for the rapidly growing population of bereaved Japanese.

Keywords: grief; bereavement; mental health; public health costs; prevention strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/486/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/486/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:1:p:486-:d:716456

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().