Impact of a community health conversation upon advance care planning attitudes and preparation intentions

Background: Advance care planning conversations and preparations do not occur as frequently as they should. Framing advance care planning as a health behavior and an opportunity for community engagement can help improve community-dwellers' intentions to have discussions and preparations regarding facing serious illness, death and dying. Methods: A multi-setting confidential pre/post paper survey assessing advance care planning discussions and preparation intentions was given to community-dwelling citizens residing in the New York metropolitan area. Survey items were adapted from a previous end of life survey to include questions on chronic illnesses, important conversations, comfort levels and concerns about end of life. The intervention was a 1-hour presentation on advance care planning (importance, laws, effective communication and audience questions) Results: Our study found significant interest in discussing advanced care planning across age groups. There were significant changes for participant intentions regarding: having conversations with loved ones, a health care proxy or similar document and none; as well as differences in participant intentions for discussions with caregiver, family, friends, primary physician and no-one. Conclusion: Educating individuals on the importance of advance care planning may be effective in changing community dwellers' intentions to start the conversation and put advanced care planning measures in place.

Automated summary

The study found significant interest among community dwellers in discussing advance care planning, indicating that educating individuals on its importance may be effective in changing intentions and implementing measures. The survey highlighted the different groups' intentions and preparation intentions in this area.