OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationships between age, reported symptoms and dependency in the last year of life in those dying from @entity5 and in those dying from other causes. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of data from the Regional Study of Care for the Dying, a retrospective interview survey of deaths in 1990 in 20 nationally representative English health districts. There were 2061 @entity5 deaths and 1469 @entity5 deaths (sudden deaths were excluded). MAIN RESULTS: In @entity5 @entity1 , the mean number of symptoms reported to have been experienced in the last year of life decreased with age (from 8.29 in those aged <65 to 7.79 in those aged 65 -74, 7.37 in those aged 75-84 and 7.42 in those aged 85 and older), while the number of symptoms reported to have lasted more than 6 months increased (2.93, 3.15, 3.24 and 3.52). In both @entity5 and @entity5 @entity1 the proportion of symptoms reported to have been 'very distressing' decreased with age ( @entity5 , 45, 43, 40 and 35%; @entity5 , 39, 38, 34 and 27%). In @entity5 @entity1 the mean number of self-care tasks the deceased had needed help with increased substantially with age (2.23, 2.50, 3.04 and 3.95); in @entity5 @entity1 the mean level was higher and there was no age gradient (3.89, 3.94, 3.83 and 4.1). The prevalence of dependency on most of the seven self-care tasks in @entity5 @entity1 was comparable with or higher than that in the older and most restricted @entity5 @entity1 . CONCLUSION: Younger @entity5 @entity1 are more likely than older @entity5 @entity1 to need help with relieving distressing symptoms. However, some elderly @entity1 were reported to have had very distressing symptoms, and these @entity1 should not be excluded from specialist palliative care services on the basis of their age. @entity5 @entity1 did not show increased dependency with age, indicating the importance of community health and social services being appropriate for and accessible by @entity5 @entity1 of all ages.

Variations by age in symptoms and dependency levels experienced by XXXX in the last year of life, as reported by surviving family, friends and officials.

@entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['Cancer', 'cancer', 'non-cancer'] @entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients']
@entity1 :: (9606,Species) :: ['people']
