Older adults' attitudes to death, palliative treatment and hospice care.

Background: Cancer patients who receive care from specialist palliative care services in the UK are younger than those who do not receive this care. This may be explained by age-related differences in attitudes to end-of-life care.

Objective: To determine the relationship between age and i) attitudes to death and preparation for death; and ii) knowledge about, and attitudes to, cancer and palliative care.

The development of a questionnaire to assess the attitudes of older people to end-of-life issues (AEOLI).

Objectives: To develop an end-of-life attitudes questionnaire for use in a large community-based sample of older people.

Design: Nominal groups and standardization of questions.

Participants: Eighteen older people, ten academics and five specialist palliative care health professionals were involved in nominal groups.