Ending one's life in a nursing home: a note on Swedish findings

Statistics on place of death, validated against longitudinal evidence on the entrance into nursing homes, show the "final" rate of institutionalization to have risen in the decades between 1938 and 1975 in Sweden. In a local study, 15 percent entered a nursing home between the ages of sixty-seven and eighty, which seems representative of national trends. The "final" rate is estimated to be between 22 percent and a maximum of about 40 percent. Currently, the socially and economically deprived dominate in Swedish nursing homes just as they did in the poor house of the past. Yet, rising rates may indicate raised welfare for the poorest in society. Issues concerning who is institutionalized and why appear more important than precise measurement of rates of institutionalization.