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The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Advance Access published online on November 16, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, doi:10.1093/geronb/gbp095
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Delineating Terminal Change in Subjective Well-Being and Subjective Health

Yuval Palgi1, Amit Shrira1, Menachem Ben-Ezra2, Tal Spalter3, Dov Shmotkin4 and Gitit Kavé5,6

1 Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Israel
2 School of Social Work, Ariel University Center of Samaria, Israel
3 Department of Sociology and Anthropology
4 Department of Psychology and Herczeg Institute on Aging, Tel Aviv University, Israel
5 Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University, Ra’anana, Israel
6 Herczeg Institute on Aging, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Address correspondence to Yuval Palgi, PhD, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. Email: yuvalfpa{at}post.tau.ac.il.


  Abstract

The present study investigated whether several evaluative indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) and subjective health decline as death approaches and which of them shows a stronger decline. Using three-wave longitudinal data from deceased participants of the Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Aging Study (N = 1,360; age range 75–94 at T1= Time 1), we found a stronger decline in most evaluative indicators when plotted by distance-to-death relative to distance from birth. After controlling for background characteristics and physical and cognitive functioning, death-related decline was still found for SWB but not for subjective health. Implications are discussed regarding the well-being paradox and the yet unclear mechanisms that link evaluative indicators to the dying process.

Key Words: CALAS • Self-rated health • Subjective well-being • Terminal change

Received November 11, 2008; Accepted October 11, 2009

Decision Editor: Rosemary Blieszner, PhD


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