Patient Understanding of End of Life Care

September 7, 2012 updated by: Partners in Internal Medicine

Assessing Patient Understanding and Factors That Govern Advanced Directives and End of Life Discussion

This study aims at assessing factors that affect patient choices for end of life care. 300 patients would be assigned either to a control arm (questionnaire alone) or intervention arm (standardized explanation+ questionnaire). Our intervention is a standardized explanation which explains what code status, advance directive and end of life care mean. Based on patient responses, factors that affect choices of code status would be analyzed. We will also evaluate if a standardized explanation improves patient understanding of end of life issues. This would be determined by generating a composite score of correct responses to a subset of objective questions in the questionnaire

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

300

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, 01608
        • Saint Vincent Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age >18 years
  • Admitted to regular nursing floor

Exclusion Criteria:

  • altered mental status
  • admitted in ICU
  • positive screening for depression
  • terminal illness defined as life expectancy< 100 days
  • inability to consent

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Questionnaire
Experimental: Intervention
Standardized explanation followed by questionnaire
Other: Standardized explanation
Standardized explanation provided on code status, advance directives and end of life care

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Composite score of correct responses
Time Frame: Patients interviewed within 48 hours of admission, questionnaire adminsitered at the time of interview
Patients in both arms were administered a questionnaire, that assessed demographics, subjective questions as well as a set of objective questions designed to assess patient understanding of code status. The responses to the objective questions were scored and the composite score of correct responses was used as a marker of patient understanding. Patients in the control arm were administered the questionnaire alone. Patients in the intervention arm first received our standard explanation, and were then administered the questionnaire
Patients interviewed within 48 hours of admission, questionnaire adminsitered at the time of interview

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Compare differences in demographic, medical, social and associated factors on patient choice of code status
Time Frame: Patients interviewed within 48 hours of admission, questionnaire adminsitered at the time of interview
Patients interviewed within 48 hours of admission, questionnaire adminsitered at the time of interview

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Partners in Internal Medicine

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: George Abraham, MD, Saint Vincent Hospital
  • Principal Investigator: Kriti Mittal, MD, Saint Vincent Hospital

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

March 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 25, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 7, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

September 11, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 11, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 7, 2012

Last Verified

September 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SVH 1195

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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