A new study using data from Norway, due to their relatively high life expectancy at birth, has looked at how six adverse health and living conditions affected the will to live long after age 60 and assessed each by age, sex, education, marital status, cognitive function, self-reported loneliness, and chronic pain.
The study is one of the first to analyze preferred life expectancy (PLE) based on hypothetical health and life conditions. The findings appear in the journal Age and Aging .
Six conditions
Among Norwegians aged 60 and over, the desire to live to old age was significantly reduced by hypothetical adverse life scenarios with the strongest effect caused by dementia and chronic pain .
The analysis included data from the population-based NORSE-Oppland Health and Living Conditions Study based on a representative sample of the population aged 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and 80 years and older. Data collection was carried out in three waves in 2017, 2018 and 2019. A total of 948 people participated in the interviews and health exams .
They asked the 825 residents of the community aged 60 and over: ‘If you could choose freely, how old would you like to live?’ Taking into account several hypothetical scenarios, such as being diagnosed with dementia, marital death, becoming a burden, poverty, loneliness and chronic pain, it was analyzed by age, sex, education, marital status, cognitive function, self-reported loneliness and chronic pain.
The results showed that among Norwegians over 60, the desire to live to old age was significantly reduced by hypothetical adverse life scenarios, such as the effects of dementia and chronic pain. Weaker negative PLE effects were found for the prospect of losing a spouse or being subject to poverty.
Despite the fact that the increase in life expectancy occurs largely in later ages, where the experience of loss and disability is widespread, there was very little scientific evidence on how long people would like to live given the impact of such conditions adverse life.