Table 2.

Unifactorial analysis of candidate predictors

Candidate predictor variables, and source	coefficient	95% confidence intervals	Unifactorial analysis (P value)
Factors from most recent comprehensive assessment prior to last year of life
Age	−0.32	−0.53 to −0.12	0.002 NB – inverse relationship
Frailty*	−0.56	−3.13 to 2.02	0.7
Mobility **	0.080	0.042 to 0.118	<0.001
Gender(female)	0.79	−1.70 to 3.78	0.5
Proxy measures	1.18	−1.64 to 4.00	0.41
Peak expiratory flow rate	−0.04	−0.08 to 0.01	0.1
Smoking status	4.40	1.90 to 6.91	0.001
Congestive Heart failure	3.68	0.39 to 6.97	0.03
Chronic Lung disease	8.73	6.00 to 11.45	<0.001
Heart attack	2.24	−0.56 to 5.04	0.1
Cancer	1.67	−1.12 to 4.46	0.2
Stroke	3.62	0.30 to 6.95	0.03
Arthritis	1.43	−0.99 to 3.85	0.2
Hip fracture	0.38	−3.52 to 4.27	0.9
Hypertension	−0.69	−3.20 to 1.81	0.6
Diabetes mellitus	0.25	−2.60 to 3.10	0.9
Condition leading to death:
cancer	1.17	−3.11 to 5.45	< 0.001
dementia	−5.35	−9.66 to −1.04
organ failure	5.46	1.31 to 9.60
sudden death	−7.18	−15.20 to 0.84
frailty	−2.30	−6.25 to 1.66
Educational level	−0.05	−0.47 to 0.36	0.8
“White” Ethnicity	−0.24	−0.50 to 0.02	0.07
Depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale) yes/no	1.35	−1.42 to 4.13	0.3
Factors from monthly interviews during the last year of life
Self report anxiety, present or absent	0.44	0.38 to 0.50	< 0.001
Self report depression, present or absent	0.49	0.33 to 0.46	< 0.001
Problems with mobility	0.08	0.04 to 0.12	< 0.001

^*Frailty = >3 of: Slow gait, weight loss, exhaustion, inactivity and reduced grip strength

^**Mobility problems= the need for personal assistance or unable to walk one quarter of a mile or unable to climb one flight of stairs