Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
One-year follow-up of a non-random sample of 397 elderly subjects showed that mortality was correlated with the expressed wish to die, and that a tentative mathematical model incorporating this factor, sex and cognitive impairment fitted the data satisfactorily, independent of other factors such as disability, depression and age. Some reasons for this finding are discussed.
Macdonald et al. (Fri,) studied this question.