The use of proxy responses for aged patients in long-term care settings

To evaluate the utility of proxy responses for aged residing in a long-term care institution, 106 non-severely cognitively impaired institutionalized patients and their designated proxies were interviewed using an identical interview schedule (53 pairs of patient-proxy interviews). Questions on selected diseases, symptoms and demographic characteristics were included and agreement between respondents and proxies was evaluated. Proxies attempted to provide information on most questions. For many medical diseases and demographic characteristics, proxies provided information which agreed with that provided by patients. However, proxies had more difficulty providing comparable answers about symptoms. It is concluded that a proxy's knowledge of a patient varies by topic. While proxy reports of specific diseases are consistent with the patient's responses, proxy reports of subjective items such as symptoms are not. Recommendations for future research in this area and the importance of these conclusions for other researchers relying on proxy reports are discussed.