A survey on older adults’ attitudes toward end-of-life care preferences

The aging of the population is a global demographic trend that we can also observe in Croatia. This brings additional challenges for individuals, families, and communities. One of the most important goals is to extend life expectancy and increase the number of healthy life years. It is therefore important to ensure high-quality end-of-life care, which means that we need to understand what matters most to patients, families, and caregivers. The main aim of the study was to investigate the preferred type of care during the last days of life among older adults over 60 years of age. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among outpatient healthcare users in Istria County (Croatia). 106 older adults took part in the survey, of which 72 (67.9%) were women and 34 men (32.1%) between the ages of 60 and 98. The results show that older adults in Istria County would rather spend the last days of their lives at home than in a hospital. The older adults who prefer hospitalization at the end of their lives cite reasons such as fear of dying alone and burdening the family. In addition to comprehensively and continuously improving the quality of life of older adults, healthcare systems should take more time to ensure a dignified end of life, i.e., working toward ensuring that the last moments of a person’s life, as well as death itself, take place exactly where the individual wishes, and that each individual is treated holistically in meeting their needs and improving palliative care at home.