Biomaterial Database

What families know about funeral-related costs: implications for social work practice. 1999

M Bern-Klug, and D J Ekerdt, and D S Wilkinson

Center on Aging, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City 66160-7117, USA. mbernklu@kumc.edu

Social workers provide essential services in the area of end-of-life care to individuals who are dying and their families. Results reported here suggest that social work's role be expanded to provide basic information about local final arrangement (funeral and burial) options and costs. This study was undertaken to determine the knowledge and experience level of people responsible for funeral and cemetery arrangements and to investigate factors affecting familiarity with final costs. Survey responses from 163 survivors of older adults in Kansas City showed that adult children play an important role in the final arrangements of a parent and that half the survivors responsible for final arrangements had no idea what to expect in terms of costs.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008875	Middle Aged	An adult aged 45 - 64 years.	Middle Age
D008923	Missouri	State bounded on the east by Illinois and Kentucky, on the south by Arkansas, on the west by Kansas, and on the north by Iowa.
D011795	Surveys and Questionnaires	Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions.	Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D005655	Funeral Rites	Those customs and ceremonies pertaining to the dead.	Mortuary Customs,Custom, Mortuary,Customs, Mortuary,Funeral Rite,Mortuary Custom,Rite, Funeral,Rites, Funeral
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000368	Aged	A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available.	Elderly
D012380	Role	The expected and characteristic pattern of behavior exhibited by an individual as a member of a particular social group.	Role Concept,Concept, Role,Concepts, Role,Role Concepts,Roles
D012947	Social Work	The use of community resources, individual case work, or group work to promote the adaptive capacities of individuals in relation to their social and economic environments. It includes social service agencies.	Service, Social,Social Intervention,Social Service,Social Service Intervention,Social Work Intervention,Intervention, Social,Intervention, Social Service,Intervention, Social Work,Interventions, Social Work,Service Intervention, Social,Services, Social,Social Interventions,Social Service Interventions,Social Services,Social Work Interventions,Work Intervention, Social
D013727	Terminal Care	Medical and nursing care of patients in the terminal stage of an illness.	End-Of-Life Care,End of Life Care,Care, End-Of-Life,Care, Terminal,End-Of-Life Cares
D016009	Chi-Square Distribution	A distribution in which a variable is distributed like the sum of the squares of any given independent random variable, each of which has a normal distribution with mean of zero and variance of one. The chi-square test is a statistical test based on comparison of a test statistic to a chi-square distribution. The oldest of these tests are used to detect whether two or more population distributions differ from one another.	Chi-Square Test,Chi Square Distribution,Chi Square Test,Chi-Square Distributions,Chi-Square Tests,Distribution, Chi-Square,Distributions, Chi-Square,Test, Chi-Square,Tests, Chi-Square