Variation in End-of-Life Trajectories in Persons Aged 70 Years and Older, Sweden, 2018‒2020

To analyze variation in end-of-life trajectories with regard to elder care and medical care and how they relate to age, gender, and causes of death. We analyzed all deaths of persons at age 70 years and older between the years 2018 and 2020 in Sweden, using a linkage of population registers. We appl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of public health (1971) Vol. 113; no. 7; pp. 786 - 794
Main Authors Ebeling, Marcus, Meyer, Anna C, Modig, Karin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Public Health Association 01.07.2023
Subjects
Age
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Death
Death & dying
Elder care
End of life
Fatalities
Gender
Health care
Health Care Facilities/Services
Health services
Health services utilization
Humans
Latent class analysis
Life span
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Mortality
Older people
Palliative care
Public health
Research & Analysis
Social Science
Sweden
Sweden
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Summary:To analyze variation in end-of-life trajectories with regard to elder care and medical care and how they relate to age, gender, and causes of death. We analyzed all deaths of persons at age 70 years and older between the years 2018 and 2020 in Sweden, using a linkage of population registers. We applied latent class analysis to identify distinct types of end-of-life trajectories. We identified 6 different types of end-of-life trajectories. The types differed substantially in the amount of utilized elder care and medical care before death. Deaths characterized by high levels of elder care and medical care utilization become more common with age. The trajectory types show distinct cause-of-death profiles. Most deaths today do not comply with what is often referred to as a "good" death (e.g., retaining control or requiring low levels of elder care). The results suggest that longer lifespans partly result from a prolonged dying process. The current modes of dying call for a discussion about how we want to die in an era of increasing lifespans and aging societies. ( . 2023;113(7):786-794. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307281).
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M. Ebeling contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, methodology, software, validation, visualization, and writing the original draft. A. C. Meyer contributed to data curation and writing—review and editing. K. Modig contributed to conceptualization, data curation, and writing of the original draft.
CONTRIBUTORS
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/ajph.2023.307281