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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Medical decision-making capacity in elderly hospitalized patients | | Author(s) | Cheryl Dellasega, Lori Frank, Michael Smyer |
| Journal title | Journal of Ethics, Law and Aging, vol 2, no 2, Fall/Winter 1996 |
| Pages | pp 65-74 |
| Keywords | In-patients ; Rights [elderly] ; Admission [hospitals] ; Cognitive processes ; Evaluation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Several different assessment instruments were used to examine cognitive and functional abilities relevant to decision-making of 60 inpatients aged 65 and over, on admission and prior to discharge from hospital. The Hopemont Competency Assessment Inventory (HCAI, Edelstein et al, 1993) measured several aspects of comprehension of disclosed medical information, as did the Understanding of Treatment Disclosures (Grisso and Appelbaum, 1992). The Everyday Problem Solving Test (Willis, 1992) provided a measure of functional ability and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used as a referent for overall mental status. Although global scores of cognition were within normal range, specific cognitive and functional abilities showed evidence of impairment. There was little fluctuation of scores over the two times of measurement. Results support the idea that decisional ability may be impaired during acute medical crises. Giving older people shorter segments of information and obtaining frequent feedback about their understanding may enhance their decision making about medical matters. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980120210 A |
| Classmark | LF7: IKR: LD:QKH: DA: 4C: 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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