Factors associated with attitudes toward death and dying in the second half of life: A scoping review.

Abstract

How we think and feel about death and dying affects how we live our lives and our opportunities for healthy aging. This scoping review, using the PRISMA guidelines and drawing on the World Health Organizations public health framework for healthy aging, examined the personal, health and environmental factors associated with attitudes toward death and dying in persons 50 years and older. Most of the 74 eligible studies focused only on negative attitudes to death and few studies investigated the comprehensive range of factors that influence attitudes to death and dying. In the context of population aging and the United Nations Decade of healthy aging (2021-2030) attention to death attitudes and the factors that influence them are imperative to enable current and future generations to age and die well.