Advance Care Planning & Goals of Care Randomized Controlled Trial in Primary Care

June 17, 2019 updated by: McMaster University

A Randomized Trial of ACP/GCD Care Pathway in Primary Care in Alberta

Sometimes people with health conditions become ill suddenly and can no longer speak for themselves and another person (such as a family member) will make health care decisions for them. This means it is important for people to think about their wishes and tell others about them. This is called advance care planning. When people have done advance care planning, if they become very sick and cannot speak for themselves they are more likely to get the kind of health care they want and it is easier for the people who make decisions for them. In Alberta, there is a form in the health care system that is used to indicate a person's wishes if participants are unable to speak for themselves. There are tools such as brochures, questionnaires, and videos that can help participants learn about advance care planning and serious illness conversations. This research is being done to study whether using tools for advance care planning will help improve goals of care designation completion rates in such a way that they better reflect patient values. In this project, we aim to determine the efficacy of tools to increase the quality and quantity of advance care planning (ACP) and Goals of Care Determinations (GCD) in primary care settings in Alberta.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

In prospective and randomized trials, advance care planning (ACP) significantly improves outcomes including increased likelihood that clinicians and families understand and comply with a patient's wishes, reduces hospitalization at the end of life, results in less intensive treatments at the end of life (according to patients' wishes) and increases use of hospice services. Trials have not been done in primary care. The aim of this study is to determine the efficacy of a care pathway designed to increase the quality and quantity of ACP in patients and their substitute decision-makers in primary care. The study is a multi-site, patient-based, unblinded, randomized trial conducted in family practices in Canada. Participants will be patients who are determined by their physician to be able to benefit from ACP, and the patient's substitute decision-maker. Participant pairs will be randomized to immediate intervention (care pathway) or delayed (8-12 weeks). The intervention is guided use of tools and decision aids to clarify values and preferences for treatments in the event of serious illness or near end of life. The outcomes will be presence of a goals of care form in the chart, substitute decision-maker engagement in ACP (including self-efficacy for enacting the role), patient engagement in ACP, and decisional conflict.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

120

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

  • Canada
    • Alberta
      • Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, T1K 3M5
        • Family Medical Centre
      • Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, T1K 5M5
        • Chinook Primary Care Network

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

65 years and older (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • age 65 years or older
  • have at least one chronic condition that may be life-limiting

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to communicate with an English-speaking research coordinator

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: ACP Education
Eligible patients in the experimental group will receive an educational intervention from an advance care planning navigator consisting of a 4-item values tool, a Goals of Care Designation form and, if applicable, watch a cardiopulmonary resuscitation video.
Behavioral: ACP Education
Decision aid and Goals of Care Designation form information administered by Navigator
Other: Usual care
Usual care includes reviewing Goals of Care Designation form and Greensleeve with physician
Active Comparator: Usual care
Patients in the usual care group will complete a Goals of Care Designation form with the family physician.
Other: Usual care
Usual care includes reviewing Goals of Care Designation form and Greensleeve with physician

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Presence of a completed goals of care designation form in the patient chart
Time Frame: 8-12 weeks
In Alberta there is a form in the health care system that is used to indicate a person's wishes if they are unable to speak for themselves. The form is called a "Goal of Care Designation" form and is part of a package called the 'Greensleeve'. Alberta Health Services requires that all patients in primary care and in hospital have a green sleeve and goal of care designation (RMC classification: R=resuscitative; M=medical; C=comfort care).
8-12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Agreement between patient's self-reported values and preferences for life sustaining treatment, and what is documented in the form in the chart
Time Frame: 8-12 weeks
Dichotomous variable of whether there is concordance between what the patient reports and what is in their chart (difference between groups)
8-12 weeks
Physician rating of decisional conflict
Time Frame: 8-12 weeks
The decisional conflict scale (DCS) measures personal perceptions of uncertainty in choosing options;modifiable factors contributing to uncertainty such as feeling uninformed, unclear about personal values and unsupported in decision making; and effective decision making. The outcome is the agreement between patient's self-reported preference for life sustaining treatment and decisional conflict using a 5-item decisional conflict scale pre- and post-intervention. Each item is scored 0 to 4 (0=Yes; 1=Probably Yes; 2=Unsure; 3=Probably No; 4=No)
8-12 weeks
Patient-reported satisfaction with the intervention
Time Frame: 8-12 weeks
Do patients who participate in an ACP educational intervention experience greater satisfaction with decision-making than patients who get usual care?
8-12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

McMaster University

Collaborators

Queen's University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michelle Howard, PhD, McMaster University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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 (Actual)

October 20, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 26, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 1, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 13, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

February 15, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 19, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 17, 2019

Last Verified

June 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 06-17

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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