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What influences individuals to engage in advance care planning?
Benjamin H Levi1, Cheryl Dellasega, Megan Whitehead
1Department of Humanities, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033, USA. bhlevi@psu.edu
Background:
Advance care planning (ACP) is an underutilized process that involves thinking about what kind of life-prolonging medical care one would want should the need arise, identifying a spokesperson, and then communicating these wishes.
Objective:
To better understand what influences individuals to engage in ACP.
Design:
Three focus groups using semistructured interactive interviews were conducted with 23 older individuals from 3 diverse populations in central Pennsylvania.
Results:
Four categories of influences for engaging in ACP were identified: (1) concern for self; (2) concern for others; (3) expectations about the impact of ACP; and (4) anecdotes, stories, and experiences.
Conclusions:
The motivations for undertaking ACP that we have identified offer health care providers insight into effective strategies for facilitating the process of ACP with their patients.
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