Immunity and health have been reported to be negatively affected after bereavement. It seems probable that these findings are interrelated. However, few studies have studied both health and immunity simultaneously. The present investigation addressed the question of whether immunity was related to health in forty-five widows studied shortly after the death of their husband, and one year later. General health, health subscales (UHI) and immunoglobulins (IgA, IgM, IgG) with components (C3, C4) were measured. Statistics employed were frequencies, paired t-tests, and correlations. Major findings show that general health improved and IgM increased significantly after one year of bereavement. Few and weak relationships were found between health scores and immune parameters. The results were primarily discussed in relation to the connection between depression and immunity, and the unclear connection between changes in immune parameters within normal ranges and health consequences.
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