Centre for Policy on Ageing



Elders' end-of-life decisions — implications for hospice care
Author(s)	Victor G Cicirelli
Journal title	The Hospice Journal, vol 12, no 1, 1997
Pages	pp 57-72
Source	Haworth Document Delivery Center, The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, USA.
Keywords	Death ; Dying ; Quality of life ; Attitude ; Terminal care ; Indicators ; Evaluation ; United States of America.
Annotation	Older people's views on various end-of-life decision options were studied to determine each option's acceptability, were they faced with the need for such decisions. In this US study, 388 older people (black or white) aged 60 to 100 responded to 17 decision scenarios depicting situations with a low quality of life, rating acceptability of each of seven options for each scenario. Factor analysis was used to work out three outcomes to the responses: maintaining life, ending life, and letting others decide. Profile types were identified and related to demographic background and personality variables. Older people's views on end-of-life decisions were found to be complex, and even contradictory or ambivalent. Hospices may need to consider not only broader admission policies, but also broader goals than comfort care to meet the wishes of future patients. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-971209217 A
Classmark	CW: CX: F:59: DP: LV: 3RI: 4C: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.