To examine the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in parents after the death of a child.
All 21,062 parents whose child had died (younger than 18 years) between 1980 and 1996 in Denmark were included in the bereaved (exposed) cohort, and 293 745 parents matched on family structure were selected randomly from the general population for the unexposed cohort.
We observed 600 incident RA cases during the follow-up (35 in the exposed cohort, 565 in the unexposed cohort). The relative risk (RR) of first hospitalisation for RA was 0.88 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.63-1.24]. The RR was close to 1 throughout the 18 years of follow-up.
Our findings do not support an association between severe psychological stress and RA.