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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Perceptions by family members of the dying experience of older and seriously ill patients | | Author(s) | Joanne Lynn, Joan M Teno, Russell S Phillips |
| Journal title | Annals of Internal Medicine, vol 126, no 2, 15 January 1997 |
| Pages | pp 97-106 |
| Keywords | Terminal care ; Chronic illness ; The Family ; Attitude ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Based on two US studies of very sick older people, many of whom died in the follow-up period, this article reports the ways in which the patients' surrogate decision makers who were usually close family members, recalled the patients' health, symptoms, functional state, emotional state, preferences for care, use of life-sustaining treatments, and site of death. In the last 3 days of life, 55% of patients were conscious. Among these patients, pain, dyspnoea and fatigue were prevalent. Four in ten patients had severe pain most of the time. Severe fatigue affected almost 8 in 10 patients. More than 1 in 4 had moderate dysphoria. 63% of patients had difficulty tolerating physical or emotional symptoms. While there were examples of final resuscitation attempts and use of a feeding tube, most patients (53%) were reported to prefer a treatment plan that focused on comfort, but care was reported to be contrary to the preferred approach in 10% of cases. Most older, seriously ill patients died in acute care hospitals. Pain and other symptoms were commonplace and troubling to patients. Family members believed that patients preferred comfort, but life-sustaining treatments were often used. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-010105004 A |
| Classmark | LV: CI: SJ: DP: 3F: 7T * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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