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Factors Associated With Veterans' Decisions About Living Wills
Jeremy Sugarman, MD;
Morris Weinberger, PhD;
Greg Samsa, PhD
Arch Intern Med. 1992;152(2):343-347.
Abstract
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Most states have adopted legislation that allows patients to designate by advance directives the type of health care they would like to receive if they should become incompetent while suffering from a terminal illness. The living will is one of the most common of these legal instruments. Unlike most studies that have examined very sick or hospitalized patients' preferences regarding life-sustaining treatments, our study explores the concerns of 70 ambulatory veterans from a general medical clinic regarding living wills. Before the interview, 43% of patients reported never HAVing heard of living wills. At interview, 4% of the patients had a living will, 33% intended to sign a living will but had not done so (INTEND), 54% were undecided about living wills (UNDECIDED), and 9% did not want a living will. Compared with UNDECIDED patients, all other patients did not differ in the use of health care services during the previous year or in diagnoses. INTEND patients, however, were significantly more likely to be white, to express poorer health status, to know someone with a living will, and to have previously discussed the topic. UNDECIDED patients were more likely than INTEND patients to report that religious beliefs about living wills affected their decision. Virtually all (91%) of the respondents believed that signing a living will would not affect their treatment. These data suggest that many patients may not know that they can have a living will and that discussions with those who already have a living will may be helpful in educational programs designed to promote informed patient decision-making.
(Arch Intern Med. 1992;152:343-347)
Author Affiliations
From the Ambulatory Care Service (Dr Sugarman) and the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care (Drs Weinberger and Samsa), Durham (NC) Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine (Drs Sugarman and Weinberger), the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development (Dr Weinberger), and Biometry Division, Department of Community and Family Medicine (Dr Samsa), Duke University Medical Center, Durham. Dr Sugarman is now with The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md.
Footnotes
Accepted for publication August 27, 1991.
Presented in part at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine, New York, NY, March 1, 1991.
Reprint requests to Division of Internal Medicine, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 1830 E Monument St, 8th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21205 (Dr Sugarman).
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