Loneliness in life and in death? Social and demographic patterns of unclaimed deaths

• Authors: Heeju Sohn, Emory University; Stefan Timmermans, University of California Los Angeles; Pamela J. Prickett, University of Amsterdam
• Journal Title: PLoS One
• Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS) | 2020
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238348
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health; Economics, General
• Keywords: isolation; economic hardship; family dynamics; migration; lonely death; remains; unclaimed deaths

Abstract

We examined family isolation, economic hardship, and long-distance migration as potential patterns of an extreme outcome of a lonely death: bodily remains that remain unclaimed and are left to the state. This paper combines a unique dataset—Los Angeles County's records of unclaimed deaths—with the Vital Statistics' Mortality data and the Annual Social and Economic Survey (ASEC) to examine 1) whose remains are more likely to become unclaimed after death and, 2) whether population-level differences and trends in family isolation, economic hardship, and long-distance migration explain the differences in the rates of unclaimed deaths. We employ multivariate Poisson models to estimate relative rates of unclaimed deaths by social and demographic characteristics. We find that increases in never married, divorced/separated, and living without family were positively associated with rates of unclaimed deaths. Unemployment among men and poverty among women was associated with higher unclaimed deaths. Long-distance migration was not associated with more unclaimed bodies.