ArticleBMJ mental health2025
Trajectories of psychological and social well-being preceding death.
Article in BMJ mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Functional decline in the final years of life: A multicohort study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPoorer psychological and social well-being has been linked to increased mortality.
objectiveTo delineate the trajectories of psychological and social well-being during the last two decades of life.
methodsWithin the Rush Memory and Aging Project, 1971 older adults were followed up for up to 22 years. Aspects of psychological well-being (ie, depression symptoms, loneliness and purpose in life) and social well-being (ie, cognitive activity, social activity and social network) were annually measured through structured interviews. Survival status was tracked during the follow-up period. Data were analysed using Cox regression and mixed-effect models with a backward timescale.
findingsDuring the follow-up, 1119 (56.77%) participants died. In multiadjusted Cox regression models, higher depression symptoms and poor social activity were associated with increased mortality. Compared with survivors, decedents showed steeper declines in psychological and social well-being, leading to significant differences up to 13 years before death for purpose in life (mean difference: -0.14 (-0.26, -0.01)), 9 years for depression symptoms (0.35 (0.10, 0.60)) and social activity (-0.16 (-0.26, -0.06)), 6 years for loneliness (0.13 (0.05, 0.21)), 4 years for social network (-1.06 (-1.77, -0.36)), and 3 years for cognitive activity (-0.12 (-0.21, -0.04)). Among decedents, the terminal phase began 11 years before death for purpose in life, 10 years for cognitive activity, 9 years for social activity and depression symptoms and 6 years for loneliness. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Psychological and social well-being may begin to exhibit terminal decline approximately 6-11 years prior to death. Longitudinal surveillance of well-being should be incorporated into the context of geriatric medical care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.