[End of life and termination of life: opinions of elderly persons with health problems]

Abstract

Objective: To determine the views of elderly persons with physical limitations about a number of aspects of the end stage of life and termination of life.

Design: Enquiry.

Setting: University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Method: An enquiry was conducted in 1995 among 575 elderly (429 females, 146 males; age 57-99 years; 281 living alone) with physical restrictions (mostly heart disease, hypertension, rheumatism or other articular diseases). The group had been selected from the 'Groningen longitudinal aging study'. The respondents were asked (a) what they thought about euthanasia, (b) whether they worried about the end stage of life, (c) whether they were afraid of death and how much they were 'preoccupied with death'. For the last-mentioned two questions a visual analogue scale was used.

Results: Almost one-third of the elderly were not preoccupied with death and over half were not afraid of death. Very few scored high on these scales. Respondents' views about the acceptability of active termination of life varied greatly: almost half were of the opinion that their life had to be terminated once they themselves had developed complete dementia. Regarding the end stage of life, respondents mostly worried about being a burden to others, being completely dependent on others, having to say goodbye to their loved ones and having to suffer greatly. Elderly persons with poorer health were more preoccupied with death and worried more about the problems of the end stage of life.

Conclusion: Most of those interviewed were not greatly preoccupied with or afraid of death. They did worry, however, about the problems that might be associated with the end stage of life.