Attitudes, death, dying, euthanasia, palliative care.

Background/Purpose: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess older adults’ attitudes to death, palliative treatment, and hospice care and to determine the association of these attitudes and age, gender, depressive symptoms, and death anxiety. Methods: The attitudes were assessed with the Attitudes of Older People to End-of-Life Issues questionnaire (AEOLI). The study included 154 people within the age range 65-97 years. Results: Only 10% of older adults agreed with keeping people alive at any price. We identified statistically significant differences in some attitudes of older adults based on their age, gender, depression, and fear from death. Younger respondents (65-74 years old) stated more positive attitudes to euthanasia than people older than 75 years of age (p=0.048). However, there was found no statistically significant difference regarding the attitudes to euthanasia based on the depression score (p=0.710). Conclusion: More open discussion on the topic of death and dying in the society is needed, which the older adults themselves would welcome. Nurses, general practitioners, and doctors should educate elderly citizens more about the palliative and hospice care. © 2021, Asian Association for Frailty and Sarcopenia and Taiwan Association for Integrated Care. Published by Full Universe Integrated Marketing Limited.