Community views: Analysis of ‘Before I Die’ statements

Background: ‘Before I Die’ is a participatory public art project created by Candy Chang where people could start a conversation, writing their wishes and aspirations on a public chalkboard. It has since grown into a global project with more than 4,000 ‘Before I Die’ walls presented in over 75 countries and in 36 languages (https://beforeidieproject.com/) Aim: This study describes the responses made to a virtual ‘Before I Die’ wall within an online learning platform. Methods: The ‘Before I Die’ activity was undertaken as part of an online massive open online course, or MOOC, Dying2Learn, conducted i2016 and 2017. Responses from both courses were extracted and de-identified. Generation of an initial coding system occurred through independent coding of 50 responses by the three investigators. A trial of the coding system using a further 100 responses was undertaken and discrepancies in coding quantified and analysed. Two research assistant then independently coded the entire response set of 633 statements. Ethical approval was granted by Flinders University (SBREC 7247). Results: Respondents were predominantly female (93.3%), with a mean age of 49.8 years. Twelve themes were identified from the responses. From the coding and analysis, three higher order themes emerged suggesting that wishes and aspirations related to the self (eg do some activity), were other focused (eg make the world a better place) or encapsulated the family (eg doing things with the family, wanting to see grandchildren grow up). Conclusions: The data shows how ‘well’ community members view what is important while considering their death. While this study is limited by a sample of convenience, it is one of the first to systematically and empirically code and analyse the way that people respond to the question ‘Before I Die, I want to…’ This activity encourages people to articulate values in their life more consciously, within the context of understanding that life is finite.