Family social support and stability of preferences regarding place of death among older people: a 3-year longitudinal study from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study

BACKGROUND: it remains unclear how family relationships could affect stability of end-of-life care preferences. OBJECTIVE: to describe change patterns of preferred place of death (POD) among older people and to examine associations between family social support and stability of preferences regarding POD. METHODS: this longitudinal study of 1,200 noninstitutionalized independent Japanese older people aged over 65 years used panel data between 2016 and 2019 from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES). Preference stability was defined as the congruence of preferred POD based on questionnaires between baseline and follow-up. We performed multiple logistic regression analysis and gender-stratified analysis to examine associations between social support (spouse, children living together and children living apart) and preference stability. RESULTS: only 40.9% of participants had stable preferences. For a spouse, both receiving and providing social support was associated with less stable preferences (OR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.43–0.93; OR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.38–0.80, respectively), and providing social support to children living apart was associated with more stable preferences (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.03–1.76). In gender-stratified analysis, significant associations between preference stability and providing social support to a spouse among women (OR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.34–0.82) and providing social support to children living apart among men (OR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.16–2.55) were observed. CONCLUSIONS: family social support was associated with the stability of preferences, and the associations differed by support resources and gender. Incorporating family members in the process of end-of-life care discussion may be necessary for establishing stable preferences.