Our analyses (as well as others) suggest that mortality is a component of population-level indicators of morbidity. For example, we estimate that 5% of the overall mortality in the HRS cohort (aged 50 years and older) is directly attributable to being exposed to the loss of a parent, spouse, sibling or adult child (Allegra et al 2015). Like others, we also see elevated rates of hospitalization and physician visits (Miles et al 2015). The size of this influence suggests that designing interventions to prevent or delay morbidity and mortality needs to include attention to grief and loss.