ABSTRACT
The epidemiological shift accruing from large number of chronic diseases worsens the prolonged dying phase all the more. Chronic diseases contribute to a large portion of the burden of noncommunicable diseases among older adults. Different cases of stomach and lung cancer are reported under a single category of digestive ailments because of similarity in symptoms. Such lacunae in death-recording patterns compromise practical community initiatives for the dying elderly. Attempts to sophisticate tools to assess specific causes of death across different age groups at household level through large-scale projects like the 'RGI Million Death Study in India'. Rural poverty might be a possible explanation for this fall since accompanying a dying patient to a hospital results in wage loss, especially where hospitals are located far off as is the case generally. Dying elderly in India have not yet benefitted from palliative care, which forms the backbone of end-of-life care strategies in Western countries.
