Dying comfortably in very old age with or without dementia in different care settings – a representative “older old” population study

Table 2 Characteristics of informants

	Total n = 180
	n	(%)
Sex
Female	123	(68)
Male	57	(32)
Relationship to deceased
Husband or wife	18	(10)
Son or daughter	97	(54)
Other relative	40	(22)
Friend	8	(4)
Matron or warden^a	15	(8)
Unknown	2	(1)
Frequency of contact with deceased study participant before they died
Lived with her/him	29	(16)
Daily	45	(25)
At least once a week	77	(43)
Less than once a week	29	(16)
Interval from study participant’s death to retrospective informant interview
Years: median [IQR]	2.3	[1.3–3.7]

Footnotes
Column percentages total 100% for each sub-group - apparent slight discrepancies due to rounding
^aMatron or other member of staff in a care home, or warden in a sheltered housing scheme
Most informants were women, usually relatives, most often a daughter or son, and the majority had been in close contact with the deceased participant before they died: 84% were either living with them, visiting daily or seeing them more than once a week