Test of an educational brochure on advance directives designed for well-elderly people

The aim of this study was to test an advance directive brochure designed especially for well-elderly people. The brochure was developed using information from literature on preparing educational materials and from information gained from well-elderly focus groups. The information sought was in regard to what they knew and what they wanted to know about advance directives and what they found appealing in brochures on advance directives. Twenty well-elderly people participated in the study. Prior to data collection, the brochure was given to 10 nurses who were asked to evaluate it according to the Bernier Instructional Design Scale 2. Out of a possible 280 points, the brochure received 244. The participants in the study were asked to read the brochure and answer 15 questions about the content, user friendliness, and attractiveness of the brochure. The overall results were positive. The first five questions had to do with the appearance of the brochure. All 20 participants responded favorably to these questions. The next 10 questions had to do with understanding the content. A simple percentage was used to calculate the results. The participants understood 90.5% of the content. Based on these results, the brochure should be used in future intervention research and in discussions regarding the education of well-elderly people and the drafting of advance directives.