ArticleAging & mental health
Questioning the value of present life: The lived experience of older people who see no future for themselves.
Article in Aging & mental health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Experiences and perceptions of unrecognised vision loss in the lives of community-dwelling older adults in Denmark: a qualitative study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Core and bridge symptoms in self-perceived aging, depression, and anxiety among the elderly with multiple chronic conditions in Chinese communities: a network analysis perspective.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The state of transience, and its influence on the wish to die of advanced disease patients: insights from a qualitative phenomenological study.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo describe the lived experience of older people who see no future for oneself in the context of aging and the possible development of a wish to die.
methodsData were collected from 34 interviews with people of 55-92 years. A phenomenological hermeneutical analysis was performed using crafted stories as an analytical device.
resultsFour intertwined constituents together with the essence of the phenomenon provide a layered description of what it means to see no future for oneself. In all constituents: 1) not sharing everyday life, 2) looking for new commitments, 3) facing present losses and future fears and 4) imagining not waking up in the morning, the essence losing zest for life seeped through their daily experiences.
conclusionsAs their horizon of future possibilities is shrinking, older people in our study experience a loss of zest for life and start to questioning the value of their present lives. And although a certain languishing mood can be discovered, the phenomenon 'seeing no future for oneself' does not entail a wish to die.
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