Predicting death quality from life prior to death among older Chinese in a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: The pursuit of a good death is crucial in aging societies. This retrospective cohort study investigated the relation between life prior to death and quality of death among older Chinese. METHODS: End-of-life data reported by relatives of participants (aged 54 and over) from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) who deceased between January 2011 and June 2019 were utilized. Life prior to death included health condition (morbid or not) and physical functioning (a latent factor with six indicators). Quality of death was assessed by painlessness and consciousness at death. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was employed to examine the factor structure of physical functioning and Structural Equation Modeling to explore associations between life prior to death and death quality based on sex and residence location. RESULTS: Freedom from chronic diseases was found to contribute to high-quality deaths (i.e., being painless and conscious) both directly and indirectly by enhancing physical functioning. Men and women diverged toward end-of-life: women were moderately less liable to illnesses and thus less painful at death. Yet, men functioned much better, and more often remained conscious when dying. Location's effect was weaker: although rural residents were more prone to painful deaths than urban dwellers, this urban-rural divide was slightly narrowed by rural settlers' relative health, which also indirectly led to their slight advantage in consciousness at death. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that different dimensions of life prior to death predicted quality of death. Additionally, morbidity's effect on functioning and death quality stresses health management's role in improving end-of-life experiences.