Time Perspective and End of Life Planning in Older Adults

• In Event: 349 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Age Norms and Attitudes over the Life Course

Abstract

Despite evidence that planning for end of life healthcare needs can increase the likelihood that people achieve a “good death,” overall rates of planning are low. Drawing upon concepts from Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, I explore the extent to which cognitive measures of perceived distance to death predict end of life discussions and advance care planning (ACP). I test the relationship between time perspective and end of life planning as well as that relationship net of social and demographic factors known to affect end of life planning. I use data from the New Jersey End of Life study, a survey of 305 adults ages 55-91. I estimate binary logistic regressions for subsamples of individuals who indicated whether they had discussed end of life (n=269) or done ACP, including a living will and durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC) appointment (n=267). Logistic regressions indicate that having either an expansive or limited time perspective is associated with significantly lower odds of undertaking ACP. An initial relationship between time perspective and end of life discussions disappears in more specified models.Practitioners should consider patients’ future time perspectives in framing efforts that encourage end of life planning.

Author

• Elizabeth Anne Luth, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers