IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v217y2018icp112-120.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unexpected death in ill old age: An analysis of disadvantaged dying in the English old population

Author

Listed:
  • Teggi, Diana

Abstract

The literature on death expectation in ill old age is mostly medical. A social science standpoint (especially quantitative) is practically absent. However, whether families, social and healthcare services can anticipate, support and prepare for the deaths of ill old adults is not reducible to the biomedical paradigm. Yet it is critical for end of life care (EOLC) policy. This study's aim is to investigate relatives' perception of death as unexpected in relation to both disease-related and care-related factors. Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing End-of-life Interviews Wave 6 this paper draws on probit regression analysis of unexpected (vs. expected) death in ill adults aged 50+. Findings are interpreted considering the containment of sudden death and the trajectories of dying in ill old age. The latter display overall visible decline preceding death. On this basis, EOLC literature and policy evidence death's uncertain timing as much as death's certain emergence in the horizon of expectation. Therefore, unexpected death in ill old age was interpreted as a failure to acknowledge dying, rather than the impossibility of discerning its approach. Very old age, dementia diagnoses and supported care environments were found to shape unexpected death.

Suggested Citation

  • Teggi, Diana, 2018. "Unexpected death in ill old age: An analysis of disadvantaged dying in the English old population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 112-120.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:217:y:2018:i:c:p:112-120
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618305446
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.09.048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Borgstrom, Erica & Walter, Tony, 2015. "Choice and compassion at the end of life: A critical analysis of recent English policy discourse," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 99-105.
    2. Kellehear, Allan, 2008. "Dying as a social relationship: A sociological review of debates on the determination of death," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 1533-1544, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Teggi, Diana, 2020. "Care homes as hospices for the prevalent form of dying: An analysis of long-term care provision towards the end of life in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marjaana Seppänen & Mia Niemi & Sofia Sarivaara, 2023. "Social relations and exclusion among people facing death," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Ana Patrícia Hilário & Fábio Rafael Augusto, 2022. "Pathways for a ‘Good Death’: Understanding End-of-Life Practices Through An Ethnographic Study in Two Portuguese Palliative Care Units," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(2), pages 219-235, June.
    3. Omer Canpolat & Hatice Yaprak Civelek, 2022. "Context of Mourning During the Pandemic: Spaces, Rituals, Outgoings, and Survivors," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 65(65), pages 81-104, June.
    4. Zivkovic, Tanya, 2021. "About face: Relationalities of ageing and dying in Chinese migrant families," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    5. Aita, Kaoruko & Kai, Ichiro, 2010. "Physicians' psychosocial barriers to different modes of withdrawal of life support in critical care: A qualitative study in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 616-622, February.
    6. van Beinum, Amanda & Hornby, Laura & Scales, Nathan & Shemie, Sam D. & Dhanani, Sonny, 2022. "Autoresuscitation and clinical authority in death determination using circulatory criteria," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    7. Collier, Aileen & Broom, Alex, 2021. "Unsettling Place(s) at the end of life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    8. Zivkovic, Tanya, 2018. "Forecasting and foreclosing futures: The temporal dissonance of advance care directives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 16-22.
    9. Driessen, Annelieke & Borgstrom, Erica & Cohn, Simon, 2021. "Placing death and dying: Making place at the end of life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:217:y:2018:i:c:p:112-120. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.