Death and dying from old people’s point of view. A literature review

Abstract

Providing high-quality end-of-life care to older people is a requirement especially for countries with a high proportion of old and very old people. This calls for an understanding of older people's view of death and dying, and one way forward is to investigate the current knowledge base. This study aimed at reviewing the literature of empirical studies about older people's view of death and dying, whether in a terminal phase of life or not. A total of 33 publications were included, identified in a stepwise literature search done in Medline, CINAHL and PsychInfo, using the terms "death", "attitude to death", "death" and "dying" in combination with "aged". Very few studies focused solely on the oldest old. The designs were mainly cross-sectional, quantitative or qualitative, using personal interviews. Some common themes of importance for further research were revealed, such as older people's readiness to talk about death and dying, conceptions of death, after-death and dying, and were seemingly related to anxiety about death, the impact on and of those close by, having both negative and positive connotations, especially related to balancing closeness, being a burden and dependency, death anxiety and its possible antecedents, the fine line between natural sadness and suffering from depression, and worry about the end-of-life phase. The lack of studies dealing with older people's view of death and dying, and the heterogeneity with regard to research questions and samples implies that findings may serve mainly as inspiration for further research.

Having to focus on doing rather than being—Nurse assistants’ experience of palliative care in municipal residential care settings

“…A literature review (Hallberg, 2004) about older people's views on death and dying showed that older people need to narrate their thoughts of death and dying and that they had not prepared themselves for aspects concerning end-of-life care. In order to be able to meet older people's desires needs to reflect over these existential and emotional issues there is an urgent need to develop support structures to strengthen nurse assistants working in residential care so that they can adequately meet these challenges.…”

Äldre människors föreställningar om den egna framtiden, döendet och döden

“…I kapitel 5 och 6 framgick det särskilt tydligt att ålderdomen utgör den fas i livet då man börjar fundera och förbereda sig inför den egna döden, men även i någon mån börjar samtala om den. Detta ligger i linje med tidigare forskningsresultat (Rahm Hallberg, 2004), men också i linje med synen på det normala åldrandet. I denna förberedelsefas inför den egna döden gav de intervjuade ofta uttryck för en "postmodern" hållning till döende och död.…”

Encountering existential loneliness among older people: perspectives of health care professionals

“…Harris (2015) described existential losses during the course of a life-limiting illness (motor neuron disease) as losses of past ways of being in the world, embodiment, spatiality, and the future. In a systematic review by Hallberg (2004) into older people’s views on death and dying, older people showed a need to talk about existential issues, of time past and time to come, as well as of dying and death. If existential thoughts and reflections at this point are not recognized or affirmed, anxiety or existential loneliness (feeling alone in the world despite having people around) can arise (Sand & Strang, 2006).…”