ArticleBMC medicine2026
Functional decline in the final years of life: A multicohort study.
Article in BMC medicine, 2026. 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
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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
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhysical, cognitive, and psychological conditions are associated with an increased risk of mortality, yet few studies have characterized terminal declines in these functional domains preceding death. In this multicohort study, we examined both separate and joint trajectories of physical, cognitive, and psychological functioning during the final decade of life and assessed the role of socioeconomic status (SES).
methodsWe used data from three national cohort studies: the US Health and Retirement Study, the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Physical, cognitive, and psychological functioning were assessed repeatedly using measures of activities of daily living, cognitive test performance, and depressive symptoms, respectively. Mortality information was obtained from proxy respondents or national death registries. Statistical analyses included linear mixed-effects models and group-based multi-trajectory models using a backward timescale.
resultsAmong 79,305 participants (mean age 65.8 ± 10.3 years; 55.4% female), 12,135 (15.3%) died during the 10-year follow-up. Compared with survivors, decedents showed steeper and accelerated declines in physical (β
conclusionsDuring the final decade of life, functional loss in physical and cognitive domains was more common than decline in psychological functioning. Higher SES was less likely to be associated with more unfavorable multidomain co-decline patterns.
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