Centre for Policy on Ageing



Planning for end-of-life care — Black-White differences in the completion of advance directives
Author(s)	Kerstin Gerst, Jeffrey A Burr
Journal title	Research on Aging, vol 30, no 4, July 2008
Pages	pp 428-449
Keywords	White people ; Black people ; Terminal care ; Medical care ; Rights [elderly] ; Wills ; Comparison ; United States of America.
Annotation	The authors examined Black-White differences in the likelihood of completing written advance directive for end-of-life health care and engaging in informal verbal communication about advance wishes. Data from the 1998 US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were combined with data from the 2000 HRS exit interview to analyse Black and White participants' completion rates. Whites were more likely than Blacks to grant durable power of attorney for health care, to complete a written will, and to informally communicate their wishes; group differences remained after controlling for personal characteristics. Also, Blacks were less likely than Whites to engage in more than one form of end-of-life planning. The authors speculate the sociocultural differences in trust in the medical system and knowledge about advance directives may partially account for these findings. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-080911202 A
Classmark	TKA: TKE: LV: LK: IKR: VTH: 48: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.