Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. |
| |
Authors: | Kathryn L Herbst-Damm James A Kulik |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. kherbst@psy.ucsd.edu |
| |
Abstract: | This study examines the possibility that volunteer support can influence how long terminally ill patients survive. Hospice patient files (N = 290) were coded for marital status and volunteer support condition, respectively, the latter on the basis of whether visits from volunteers were requested and received (n = 94), requested but not received (n = 28), or neither requested nor received (n = 168). Baseline health, disease type, and demographic dimensions were comparable across support conditions. Results indicated that when a baseline health status effect was controlled for (p<.0002), patients in the volunteer support condition survived significantly longer than did patients in either unvisited condition (p<.0001). Neither marital status nor gender independently predicted survival time. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|