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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
End-of-life issues and spiritual histories
1Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29406, USA. kingde@musc.edu
Background:
Patients facing end-of-life issues have spiritual concerns that may have an impact on their medical decision-making.
Methods:
To determine whether physicians address spiritual concerns in this context, we reviewed the charts of 92 elderly hospitalized patients facing decisions regarding resuscitation status or feeding tube placement.
Results:
The average age of the participants was 72.4 years and 51% of them were female. Only 6.5% of the patients had spiritual histories documented in their charts; 29% had either a spiritual history or some mention of chaplain or psychiatrist involvement.
Conclusion:
Spiritual concerns of many patients facing end-of-life decisions are not being addressed.
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