ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2002
Planning for death but not serious future illness: qualitative study of housebound elderly patients.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- Do the elderly have a voice? Advance care planning discussions with frail and older individuals: a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2013Pooled it
- Death and the Oldest Old: Attitudes and Preferences for End-of-Life Care--Qualitative Research within a Population-Based Cohort Study.PloS one · 2016Trial
- Conceptual Confusion: A Barrier to Multi-Professional Involvement in Advance Care Planning in Nursing Homes - An Ethnographic Study.Journal of palliative care · 2025Article
- Perceptions of Illness Severity, Treatment Goals, and Life Expectancy: The ePISTLE Study.Kidney international reports · 2021Article
- Perspectives on Aging-Related Preparation.Journal of elder policy · 2021Article
- Predictors of Advance Care Planning in Older Women: The Nurses' Health Study.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2019Article
- Assessing future care preparation in late life: Two short measures.Psychological assessment · 2017Article
- Physical, social, psychological and existential trajectories of loss and adaptation towards the end of life for older people living with frailty: a serial interview study.BMC geriatrics · 2016Article
- What is different about living alone with cancer in older age? A qualitative study of experiences and preferences for care.BMC family practice · 2013Article
- Planning for Serious Illness amongst Community-Dwelling Older Adults.Nursing research and practice · 2013Article
- Planning for serious illness by the general public: a population-based survey.ISRN family medicine · 2013Article
- Trajectories of preparation for future care among first-degree relatives of Alzheimer's disease patients: an ancillary study of ADAPT.The Gerontologist · 2012Article
- Promoting advance care planning as health behavior change: development of scales to assess Decisional Balance, Medical and Religious Beliefs, and Processes of Change.Patient education and counseling · 2012Article
- When doctors and daughters disagree: twenty-two days and two blinks of an eye.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2011Article
- Garnering support for advance care planning.JAMA · 2010Article
- Understanding advance care planning as a process of health behavior change.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2009Article
- Surrogate decision makers' understanding of dementia patients' prior wishes for end-of-life care.Journal of aging and health · 2009Article
- Older adults' beliefs about physician-estimated life expectancy: a cross-sectional survey.BMC family practice · 2006Article
- Planning and Decision Making for Care Transitions.Annual review of gerontology & geriatricsArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo understand how elderly patients think about and approach future illness and the end of life.
designQualitative study conducted 1997-9.
settingPhysician housecall programme affiliated to US university.
participants20 chronically ill housebound patients aged over 75 years who could participate in an interview. Participants identified through purposive and random sampling.
main outcome measuresIn-depth semistructured interviews lasting one to two hours.
resultsSixteen people said that they did not think about the future or did not in general plan for the future. Nineteen were particularly reluctant to think about, discuss, or plan for serious future illness. Instead they described a "one day at a time," "what is to be will be" approach to life, preferring to "cross that bridge" when they got to it. Participants considered end of life matters to be in the hands of God, though 13 participants had made wills and 19 had funeral plans. Although some had completed advance directives, these were not well understood and were intended for use only when death was near and certain.
conclusionsThe elderly people interviewed for this study were resistant to planning in advance for the hypothetical future, particularly for serious illness when death is possible but not certain.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.