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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The use of life sustaining treatments in hospitalized persons aged 80 and older | | Author(s) | Emese Somogyi-Zalud, Zhenshao Zhong, Mary Beth Hamel |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 50, no 5, May 2002 |
| Pages | pp 930-934 |
| Keywords | Medical care ; Terminal care ; In-patients ; Octogenarians ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The authors report rates of admission to intensive and coronary care units of four US hospitals and rates of use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and other life-sustaining treatments. Of the 1,266 patients enrolled in the Hospitalized Elderly Longitudinal Project (HELP), 72 died while in hospital (median age 86, age range 83-89). Of the patients who died, the median number of activities of daily living (ADL) impairments was two (range 1-4) before admission to hospital, and 70% reported their baseline quality of life as fair or poor. Most patients who died stated that they did not want aggressive care; 70% wanted their care focused on comfort rather than prolonging life; and 80% had a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order. However, most (64%) received one or more life-sustaining treatments before they died; for example, 54% were admitted to intensive or coronary care units. Intensive care did not affect survival time. Therefore, despite the fact that most of the patients had a preference for comfort care, the use of life-sustaining treatments was prevalent in very old patients who died while in hospital. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020701210 A |
| Classmark | LK: LV: LF7: BBM: 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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