Serious Illness in Late Life: The Public’s Views and Experiences

Executive Summary
  1. Administration on Aging Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, A Profile of Older Americans: 2015. https://www.acl.gov/sites/default/files/Aging%20and%20Disability%20in%20America/2015-Profile.pdf

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Introduction
  1. Administration on Aging Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, A Profile of Older Americans: 2015. https://www.acl.gov/sites/default/files/Aging%20and%20Disability%20in%20America/2015-Profile.pdf

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  2. T Neuman, J Cubanski, J Huang, A. Damico. Kaiser Family Foundation, The Rising Cost of Living Longer: Analysis of Medicare Spending by Age for Beneficiaries in Traditional Medicare. Available at http://www.kff.org/medicare/report/the-rising-cost-of-living-longer-analysis-of-medicare-spending-by-age-for-beneficiaries-in-traditional-medicare/

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Section 2: Experience of Older Adults with Serious Illness
  1. There are a number of challenges in getting people who are personally seriously ill to take a telephone survey, so while this survey is nationally representative overall, it represents those who are non-institutionalized, well enough to answer the phone, and mentally competent.

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Section 3: Documenting and Talking About Wishes
  1. The Sightlines Project, Stanford Center on Longevity, Financial Security Index, as of August 29, 2017 http://longevity.stanford.edu/financial-security/

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  2. AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Long-Term Care in America: Expectations and Preferences for Care and Caregiving, 2016. http://www.longtermcarepoll.org/pages/polls/long-term-care-in-america-expectations-and-preferences-for-care-and-caregiving-research-highlights.aspx

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Section 4: Differences by Race/Ethnicity
  1. While black, Hispanic, and white adults are analyzed separately, it is important to note that the survey includes people of other racial and ethnic groups as well. However, due to the relatively small proportion of the population of these other groups (for example, Asians), it is not possible to analyze their responses separately.

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  2. Note, because the sample design includes an oversample of adults with experience with serious illness, including blacks and Hispanics with this type of experience, the margin of sampling error is particularly high for blacks and Hispanics age 65 or older.

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