Older Latinos' attitudes toward and comfort with end-of-life planning

The purpose of this study was to determine which of two educational interventions delivered in Spanish would influence Latino elders' attitudes toward and comfort with end-of-life planning in comparison with a control group receiving only standard information routinely provided. Using a posttest-only control group design, elders receiving home care services who agreed to participate were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Conversación A; Conversación B, with culturally relevant material added; and a control group. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to determine the effect on the two dependent variables: attitudes toward end-of-life planning and comfort with end-of-life planning. Significant differences were found among the three groups on both outcome measures. Attitudes toward advance planning scores were significantly higher for both intervention groups compared with the control group. Although both intervention groups had higher comfort scores than the control group, only the Conversación A score was statistically different from that of the control group. The results of this study indicate that it may be possible to positively influence both attitudes toward and comfort with end-of-life planning among older Latinos receiving home care, through the use of a one-to-one protocol that is delivered in Spanish.