End of life treatment decisions in people with dementia: carers' views and the factors which influence them
✍ Scribed by Dawn Potkins; Sonia Bradley; Jay Shrimanker; John O'Brien; Alan Swann; Clive Ballard
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 52 KB
- Volume
- 15
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6230
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Objective[ Treatment decisions in life threatening situations "TD# are poorly studied in people with dementia[ Method[ The carers of people with dementia were asked four TD questions\ pertaining to cardiac resuscitation\ intravenous ~uids\ oral antibiotics and intravenous antibiotics[ The impact of key variables "age\ dementia severity\ psychiatric co!morbidity\ physical illness\ family relationship of carer# on TD were evaluated[ Results[ Fifty carers participated\ 35) wanted cardiac resuscitation\ 59) wanted treatment with intravenous ~uids\ 41) wanted treatment with intravenous antibiotics and 59) wanted treatment with oral antibiotics[ Agree! ment between questions was high "65Ð78)#\ suggesting that relatives were either for or against intervention[ There was an association between more severe dementia and a reduced wish for intravenous antibiotics[ None of the variables signi_cantly in~uenced other TD[ Conclusion[ The {global| view of carers\ was not in~uenced greatly by key disease variables[ There are potential implications for the way in which carers are used as proxy decision makers [ Copyright Þ 1999