Daily Subjective Nearness to Death and Well-Being Among Older Adults in Samples from Four Countries

Subjective nearness to death (SNtD), referring to how close one perceives oneself to death, relates to various health outcomes. While daily variations in views of aging have been demonstrated, whether SNtD fluctuates and covaries with well-being over short-term time frames remains unclear. Whether country-based recruitment contexts modify these daily associations also remains underexplored. Respondents ( N = 197, mean age = 64.30, range = 50–90) who participated in the Subjective AGES (Subjective Aging within Global Everyday ecological Studies) consortium rated SNtD and psychological, cognitive, and physical well-being indices, including negative affect, memory failures, and somatic symptoms, across 14 consecutive days. We recruited participants as convenience samples in Israel, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States. SNtD showed significant daily fluctuations. Furthermore, on days when participants felt closer to death than usual, they reported higher negative affect, more memory failures, and more somatic symptoms. Secondary exploratory analyses indicated stronger daily covariation between SNtD and well-being indices in the Israeli sample and weaker covariation in the American sample. These findings indicate that SNtD exhibits significant daily fluctuations that align with older adults’ daily experiences. The primary findings support daily SNtD-well-being coupling. The differences across the country samples are preliminary and suggest a need to examine contextual moderators in future research.