ArticleBMC geriatrics2020
Life worth living: cross-sectional study on the prevalence and determinants of the wish to die in elderly patients hospitalized in an internal medicine ward.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding death wishes in later life: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Wish to die and healthcare use in older people: cross-sectional findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).Journal of public health (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Article
- End-of-life decisions and ethics on the big screen: reflecting narratives of 'a life fully lived'.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2025Article
- Life worth living: cross-sectional study on the prevalence and determinants of the wish to die in elderly patients hospitalized in an internal medicine ward.BMC geriatrics · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundElderly people frequently express the wish to die: this ranges from a simple wish for a natural death to a more explicit request for death. The frequency of the wish to die and its associated factors have not been assessed in acute hospitalization settings. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and determinants of the wish to die in elderly (≥65 years) patients hospitalized in an internal medicine ward.
methodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted between 1 May, 2018, and 30 April, 2019, in an acute care internal medicine ward in a Swiss university hospital. Participants were a consecutive sample of 232 patients (44.8% women, 79.3 ± 8.1 years) with no cognitive impairment. Wish to die was assessed using the Schedule of Attitudes toward Hastened Death-senior and the Categories of Attitudes toward Death Occurrence scales.
resultsPrevalence of the wish to die was 8.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.3-13.0). Bivariate analysis showed that patients expressing the wish to die were older (P = .014), had a lower quality of life (P < .001), and showed more depressive symptoms (P = .044). Multivariable analysis showed that increased age was positively (odds ratio [OR] for a 5-year increase: 1.43, 95% CI 0.99-2.04, P = .048) and quality of life negatively (OR: 0.54, 95% CI 0.39-0.75, P < 0.001) associated with the likelihood of wishing to die. Participants did not experience stress during the interview.
conclusionsPrevalence of the wish to die among elderly patients admitted to an acute hospital setting is low, but highly relevant for clinical practice. Older age increases and better quality of life decreases the likelihood of wishing to die. Discussion of death appears to be well tolerated by patients.
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