CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 310Palliative Care and End-of-Life IssuesPalliative and Oncologic CareEthics and bioethics in healthcare

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 15 of the 16 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Will to live in the terminally ill

Chochinov, Harvey Max, Tataryn, Douglas, Clinch, Jennifer J, Dudgeon, Deborah·1999·The Lancet
DOI 10.1016/s0140-6736(99)80011-7
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background Complex biomedical and psychosocial considerations figure prominently in the debate about euthanasia and assisted suicide. No study to date, however, has examined the extent to which a dying patient's will to live fluctuates as death approaches.Methods This study examined patients with cancer in palliative care. Will to live was measured twice daily throughout the hospital stay on a self-report 100 mm visual analogue scale. This scale was incorporated into the Edmonton symptom assessment system, a series of visual analogue scales measuring pain, nausea, shortness of breath, appetite, drowsiness, depression, sense of well-being, anxiety, and activity. Maximum and median fluctuations in will-to-live ratings, separated by 12 h, 24 h, 7 days, and 30 days, were calculated for each patient.Findings Of 585 patients admitted to palliative care during the study period (November, 1993, to May, 1995), 168 (29%; aged 31-89 years) met criteria of cognitive and physical fitness and agreed to take part. The pattern of median changes in will-to-live score suggested that will to live was stable (median changes <10 mm on 100 mm scale for all time intervals). By contrast, the average maximum changes in will-to-live score were substantial (12 h 33.1 mm, 24 h 35.8 mm, 7 days 48.8 mm, 30 days 68.0 mm). In a series of stepwise regression models carried out at 12 h, 24 h, and 1-4 weeks after admission, the four main predictor variables of will to live were depression, anxiety, shortness of breath, and sense of well-being, with the prominence of these variables changing over time.Interpretation Among dying patients, will to live shows substantial fluctuation, with the explanation for these changes shifting as death approaches.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s0140-6736(99)80011-7

Cites

15 of 15 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 16 references

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Foley, 1991, The treatment of cancer pain, N Engl J Med, 153, 217
  2. Diekstra, 1995, An international perspective on the epidemiology and prevalence of suicide, J Affect Disord, 36, 11

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–200 of 309

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Chochinov, H. M., Tataryn, D., Clinch, J. J., & Dudgeon, D.
Affiliations
  • University of Manitoba (CA)
  • St. Boniface Hospital (CA)
  • Queen's University (CA)
Corresponding author
Chochinov, Harvey Max
ORCID
Chochinov, Harvey Max
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1999-09
Volume
354
Issue
9181
Pages
816-819
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
DOI
10.1016/s0140-6736(99)80011-7
OpenAlex
W2122367099
Cited by
310
References
16
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 7
FWCI
17.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • The Lancet (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
Keywords
will to live, dying patients, cancer, palliative care, depression, anxiety, dyspnea, sense of well-being, Edmonton Symptom Assessment System, visual analogue scale, euthanasia, assisted suicide
MeSH terms
Aged, Attitude to Death, Euthanasia, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Status Schedule, Neoplasms, Palliative Care, Suicide, Assisted, Terminally Ill, Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review