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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Preferences for prolonging life
— a prospect theory approach | | Author(s) | Laraine Winter, M Powell Lawton, Katy Ruckdeschel |
| Journal title | International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol 56, no 2, 2003 |
| Pages | pp 155-170 |
| Keywords | Longevity ; Good Health ; Ill health ; Attitude ; Medical care ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Kahneman and Tversky's (1979) Prospect theory was tested as a model of preferences for prolonging life under various hypothetical health statuses. A sample of 394 American older people (263 healthy, 131 frail) living in congregate housing indicated how long (if at all) they would want to live under each of nine hypothetical health conditions (e.g. limited to bed or chair in nursing home). Prospect theory, a decision model which takes into account the individual's point of reference, would predict that frail people would view prospective poorer health conditions as more tolerable and express preferences to live longer in worse health than would currently healthy people. In separate analyses of covariance, the authors evaluated preferences of frail and healthy subjects for continued life under four conditions of functional ability, four conditions of cognitive impairment, and three pain conditions. Frail participants expressed preferences for longer life under more compromised health conditions than did healthy participants. The results imply that such preferences are malleable, changing as health deteriorates. They also help explain disparities between proxy decision makers' and patients' own preferences as expressed in advance directives (living wills). (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-031001212 A |
| Classmark | BGA: CD: CH: DP: LK: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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