Dying at the best time

Abstract

These are the results of two surveys of relatives, and others who knew people who had died, describing events in the year before death and their views on the time of the person's death. Those surveyed were identified from death certificates in England. The main focus is on a sample of 3696 people dying in 1990 in 20 health authorities, with supporting analysis from an earlier national sample of 639 people dying in 1987. Variation in peoples' views about whether an earlier death would have been better is reported, in the context of debate about euthanasia. Spouses were less likely than others to feel that it would have been better if the person had died earlier, and this held true even when controlling for the deceaseds' levels of pain, distress, dependency and age. Spouses were more likely than others to say that a later death would have been better, though not in cases where the deceased was reported as having said they wanted to die sooner. Spouses were influenced by the loss which the death of the person represented for them, being more likely than others to say they missed the person who died a great deal, and feel loneliness was a big problem. Non spouses (children and other relatives of the deceased, friends, neighbours and a few officials) on the other hand were more likely than spouses to say an earlier death would have been better, even when levels of pain, distress, dependency and age were controlled for.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Association between subjective economic status and refusal of life-prolonging treatment: a cross-sectional study using content analysis with stratified random sampling

“…Consistent with the results of a previous study 13) , bivariate analysis showed that males preferred receiving LPT whereas females tended to refuse it among welloff older adults. These results are consistent with those of past studies, which pointed out that older adult females are more likely than males to refuse LPT 14,19) , and to have the wish to die sooner if terminally ill 13) . As for the result that this tendency was not observed among the poor older adults, given that high economic status is associated with high autonomy 20) , the gender difference may be the result of thinking autonomically about LPT.…”

“…These categories may reflect personal values related to the EOL. These results that females did not focus on the personal topics are consistent with previous studies that reported females to be more strongly influenced by the presence of a spouse or family member in their LPT decisions than males 13,14,19) ; therefore, females may be more sensitive to what other people think and do not prioritize themselves when they are poor. Importantly, a no similar significant association was found in the welloff females, suggesting that the influence of a spouse and/ or family on LPT decisions may be mediated by economic status in females.…”

Association between subjective economic status and refusal of life-prolonging treatment: a cross-sectional study using content analysis with stratified random sampling

“…Consistent with the results of a previous study 13) , bivariate analysis showed that males preferred receiving LPT whereas females tended to refuse it among welloff older adults. These results are consistent with those of past studies, which pointed out that older adult females are more likely than males to refuse LPT 14,19) , and to have the wish to die sooner if terminally ill 13) . As for the result that this tendency was not observed among the poor older adults, given that high economic status is associated with high autonomy 20) , the gender difference may be the result of thinking autonomically about LPT.…”

“…These categories may reflect personal values related to the EOL. These results that females did not focus on the personal topics are consistent with previous studies that reported females to be more strongly influenced by the presence of a spouse or family member in their LPT decisions than males 13,14,19) ; therefore, females may be more sensitive to what other people think and do not prioritize themselves when they are poor. Importantly, a no similar significant association was found in the welloff females, suggesting that the influence of a spouse and/ or family on LPT decisions may be mediated by economic status in females.…”

In one’s own time: Contesting the temporality and linearity of bereavement

“…Whereas advanced warning allowed carers to prepare for the death before it happened – in what has been called ‘anticipatory grieving’ (Fulton et al, 1996; Seale and Addington-Hall, 1995; Sweeting and Gilhooly, 1990) – uncertainty around the timing of death could preclude grieving until prognostic certainty or death itself was achieved. In many of these instances, grief was still constructed as a linear and time-delimited process where advance warning was seen to confer a head start.…”

Preferences for Different Life-Sustaining Treatments among Elderly Persons in Israel

“…These accumulated findings indicate that religiosity within all three Western religions -Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish -is associated with a will to prolong life in any illness condition. Seale and Addington-Hall (1995) also found that women are less likely than men to want to prolong their life in any illness condition. This finding may be partly explained by findings of previous studies in Israel (Kark et al, 1996) and in other Western countries (Verbrugge, 1989), which show that women rank themselves lower than men on indicators of well-being including health and satisfaction with life.…”

Association between subjective economic status and refusal of life-prolonging treatment: a cross-sectional study using content analysis with stratified random sampling

“…Consistent with the results of a previous study 13) , bivariate analysis showed that males preferred receiving LPT whereas females tended to refuse it among welloff older adults. These results are consistent with those of past studies, which pointed out that older adult females are more likely than males to refuse LPT 14,19) , and to have the wish to die sooner if terminally ill 13) . As for the result that this tendency was not observed among the poor older adults, given that high economic status is associated with high autonomy 20) , the gender difference may be the result of thinking autonomically about LPT.…”

“…These categories may reflect personal values related to the EOL. These results that females did not focus on the personal topics are consistent with previous studies that reported females to be more strongly influenced by the presence of a spouse or family member in their LPT decisions than males 13,14,19) ; therefore, females may be more sensitive to what other people think and do not prioritize themselves when they are poor. Importantly, a no similar significant association was found in the welloff females, suggesting that the influence of a spouse and/ or family on LPT decisions may be mediated by economic status in females.…”

In one’s own time: Contesting the temporality and linearity of bereavement

“…Whereas advanced warning allowed carers to prepare for the death before it happened – in what has been called ‘anticipatory grieving’ (Fulton et al, 1996; Seale and Addington-Hall, 1995; Sweeting and Gilhooly, 1990) – uncertainty around the timing of death could preclude grieving until prognostic certainty or death itself was achieved. In many of these instances, grief was still constructed as a linear and time-delimited process where advance warning was seen to confer a head start.…”

Preferences for Different Life-Sustaining Treatments among Elderly Persons in Israel

“…These accumulated findings indicate that religiosity within all three Western religions -Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish -is associated with a will to prolong life in any illness condition. Seale and Addington-Hall (1995) also found that women are less likely than men to want to prolong their life in any illness condition. This finding may be partly explained by findings of previous studies in Israel (Kark et al, 1996) and in other Western countries (Verbrugge, 1989), which show that women rank themselves lower than men on indicators of well-being including health and satisfaction with life.…”

Association between subjective economic status and refusal of life-prolonging treatment: a cross-sectional study using content analysis with stratified random sampling

“…Consistent with the results of a previous study 13) , bivariate analysis showed that males preferred receiving LPT whereas females tended to refuse it among welloff older adults. These results are consistent with those of past studies, which pointed out that older adult females are more likely than males to refuse LPT 14,19) , and to have the wish to die sooner if terminally ill 13) . As for the result that this tendency was not observed among the poor older adults, given that high economic status is associated with high autonomy 20) , the gender difference may be the result of thinking autonomically about LPT.…”

“…These categories may reflect personal values related to the EOL. These results that females did not focus on the personal topics are consistent with previous studies that reported females to be more strongly influenced by the presence of a spouse or family member in their LPT decisions than males 13,14,19) ; therefore, females may be more sensitive to what other people think and do not prioritize themselves when they are poor. Importantly, a no similar significant association was found in the welloff females, suggesting that the influence of a spouse and/ or family on LPT decisions may be mediated by economic status in females.…”

In one’s own time: Contesting the temporality and linearity of bereavement

“…Whereas advanced warning allowed carers to prepare for the death before it happened – in what has been called ‘anticipatory grieving’ (Fulton et al, 1996; Seale and Addington-Hall, 1995; Sweeting and Gilhooly, 1990) – uncertainty around the timing of death could preclude grieving until prognostic certainty or death itself was achieved. In many of these instances, grief was still constructed as a linear and time-delimited process where advance warning was seen to confer a head start.…”

Preferences for Different Life-Sustaining Treatments among Elderly Persons in Israel

“…These accumulated findings indicate that religiosity within all three Western religions -Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish -is associated with a will to prolong life in any illness condition. Seale and Addington-Hall (1995) also found that women are less likely than men to want to prolong their life in any illness condition. This finding may be partly explained by findings of previous studies in Israel (Kark et al, 1996) and in other Western countries (Verbrugge, 1989), which show that women rank themselves lower than men on indicators of well-being including health and satisfaction with life.…”