Research report 2023 - Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Insights into the last year of life
Authors
Ebeling, Marcus; Meyer, Anna C.; Modig, Karin
Departments
Max-Planck-Institut für demografische Forschung, Rostock (Ebeling)
Institute of Environmental Medicine, Unit of Epidemiology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Schweden (Meyer, Modig)
Institute of Environmental Medicine, Unit of Epidemiology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Schweden (Meyer, Modig)
Summary
Little is known about how people spend the last year of their lives. The results of the study show that longer life is associated with a longer dying process and that most deaths are not what is often called a "good" death. Longer life is partly the result of a longer dying process. End-of-life trajectories call for a discussion about how we want to die in an era of increasing life expectancy and ageing societies.