Mortality and Terminal Decline

Demographers and lifespan pscyhological and gerontological researchers share an interest in understanding what occurs at the end of life--the years before death.  One focus has been on the process of terminal decline, a significant drop in functioning that occurs at some point shortly before death.  Several researchers in the Center are exploring different dimensions of this important issue.

Age- and Death-Related Processes in Old Age

In various cognitive domains, evidence is building that late-life changes in function are marked by pronounced, proximate to death deteriorations.  Only recently, however, have researchers begun examining how notions of terminal decline may apply to other apsects of psychological functions such as well-being.  For example, using longitudinal data from deceased participants of the Berlin Aging Study (http://www.base-berlin.mpg.de/), Gerstorf, Ram, Rocke, Lindenberger, and Smith have empirically demonstrated that change in life satisfaction as a function of distance to death was associated with greater interindividual differences and steeper average decline than life satisfaction as a function of age.  Overall, the evidence suggests that late-life changes in aspects of well-being are driven by mortality-related mechanisms and characterized by terminal decline.  These and related questions are also being examined using the German Socioeconomic Panel Study (http://www.diw.de/english/soepoverview/27908.html) and the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/NACDA/STUDY/03891.xml).

Gerstorf, D., Ram, N., Röcke, C., Lindenberger, U., & Smith, J. (in press). Decline in life satisfaction in old age: Longitudinal evidence for links to distance-to-death. Psychology and Aging.

Gerstorf, D., Ram, N., Estabrook, R., Schupp, J., Wagner, G. G., & Lindenberger, U. (under review). Life satisfaction shows terminal decline in old age: Longitudinal evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study.

Smith, J., Gerstorf, D., & Li, Q. (in press). Psychological resources for well-being among octogenarians, nonagenarians, and centenarians: Differential effects of age and selective mortality. In Z. Yi, D. Poston, D. A. Vlosky , & D. Gu (Eds.), Healthy longevity in China: Demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological dimensions. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.