Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, 98, to Begin Receiving Hospice Care

John Bazemore, Pool/AP Former President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter is set to begin receiving hospice care.

The Carter Center announced in a statement on Saturday that the former U.S. president, 98, will be moved to hospice care following "a series of short hospital stays."

"Former US President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention," the statement said. "He has the full support of his family and his medical team."

"The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers," the statement concluded.

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RELATED: Jimmy Carter: His Life in Pictures

President Carter's health news comes about after he set a new record as the longest-living United States president in October.

He's held the title since March 2019, months after the previous titleholder — President George H.W. Bush — died at the age of 94.

Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images Jimmy Carter

The Carter Center, founded by President Carter and Rosalynn Carter in 1982, has been aiding in a wide range of humanitarian efforts for 40 years now.

President Carter may have only led the nation for four years, but in the four decades that have followed his White House tenure, he's managed to leverage his place in history to help others both domestically and abroad.

RELATED VIDEO: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's Decades-Long Love Story

President Carter's unusually long post-White House life — 41 years and counting, outlasting Herbert Hoover's next-longest post-presidency timespan by a decade — has allowed him time to author 30 books, the most recent published when he was 93, and get back to the no-frills American lifestyle he and Rosalynn always appreciated.

Until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Carters spent a week each year volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. For many of those years, President Carter also taught Sunday school classes in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, a small rural area with a population in the hundreds.