The Five Per Cent Fallacy

Abstract

Using the Kastenbaum and Candy study of locations where persons aged sixty-five plus died over the period of one year in a large metropolitan city as a model, this study examined the place of death for persons aged sixty-five plus in a middle-size city [1]. In both studies particular attention was paid to nursing homes and extended care facilities to determine whether or not the commonly accepted figure of 5 per cent accurately reflects the number of persons actually living in such facilities. The premise was that if persons died in such a facility, then they had in fact lived there. This study demonstrates, as had the Kastenbaum and Candy study, that the actual percentage of persons dying in these institutions far exceeds the commonly held 5 per cent.