Does health status affect perceptions of factors influencing dignity at the end of life?

More people are surviving into old age, and chronic diseases tend to become more common with age. Ill health and disability can lead to concerns about loss of personal dignity.

To investigate whether health status affects the perceptions of factors influencing personal dignity at the end of life, and the relationship between those perceptions and sociodemographic characteristics.

A subsample (n=2282) of a large advance directives cohort study was used. Three different health status groups (good, moderate, and poor) were defined based on the Euroqol-5D and a question on whether they had an illness. For each health status group, we calculated the percentage of respondents who indicated the extent to which the items of the Patient Dignity Inventory would influence their dignity as (very) large. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the associations between the perceptions of factors influencing personal dignity and sociodemographics.

The percentage of respondents who indicated the factors as having a (very) large influence on dignity at the end of life were not significantly different for the three health status groups, except for three physical items on symptoms, roles, and routines. Those items were significantly more influential on dignity for people with a poor health status. Gender, old age, having a partner, and having a belief or religion that is important to one's life were associated with an understanding of factors influential to dignity.

Health status seems only to affect the perceptions of physical factors maintaining dignity at the end of life. This might suggest that the understanding of dignity will not substantially change as health status changes and may support starting advance care planning early.