[Knowledge and attitudes of primary care professionals on the "live wills" document]

To assess the current state of knowledge and attitudes on the advance directives (living wills) document of professionals working in primary.

Descriptive, cross-sectional study.

Primary care professionals.

Catalonia Health Institute, Maresme Province, Barcelona.

An anonymous self-administered questionnaire was prepared with a correct answer model and a minimum correct level for each block of questions, as well as two comprehensibility and validity tests and a pilot feasibility test.

From a target population of 475 individuals, t 227 (47%) responses were received (59% of GPs, 28% of paediatricians, 7% of dentists, 59% of nurses, 12% of assistant clinics, 30% of social workers and 25% of administrative assistants). Four people had written their own advance directive document. The percentage of correct answers was: definition block 83.8%, legal aspects 4.1%, procedure-register 0.5%; content 1.4%, application 38.6%.

Primary care workers have a general knowledge on the advance directives and the advance directive document but not enough about the law, content and registers. There was no significant difference between professional groups. The questionnaire appears useful for assessing knowledge on advance directives document.