Advance care planning for patients undergoing gastrostomy tube procedures; prevalence, outcomes, and disparities

Advanced care planning (ACP) is the process of establishing goals for end-of-life care. We aimed to examine ACP's prevalence, associated factors, and impact in a cohort of patients undergoing gastrostomy tube procedures.

Adult patients who underwent gastrostomy tube placement from 2016 to 2021 ​at a tertiary center were identified. Variables evaluated included age, sex, race, comorbidities, and median income of patient home zip code. Primary outcomes included the presence of ACP, length of stay (LOS), and 90-day mortality. Analysis was performed using independent T tests, Mann Whitney U-tests, and Chi Square analysis. ACP, LOS, and 90-day mortality were analyzed with multivariate analysis.

877 patients underwent gastrostomy tube placement and 10.6 ​% had ACP. Black race was an isolated factor negatively associated with ACP (OR 0.423, p ​= ​0.013). There was no difference in the proportion of patients with or without ACP who died within 90 days of the procedure (17 ​% vs. 15 ​%, p ​= ​0.836). Average LOS was 6 days shorter for patients with ACP (p ​< ​0.001).

This study highlights the significant underutilization and racial disparity in ACP, and found that ACP does not negatively impact outcomes or perioperative mortality for patients undergoing gastrostomy tube placement.