Instruments for Value Elucidation in Older Adults in Clinical Practice-A Scoping Review

To ensure appropriate care for the individual older adult, an ideal treatment should align with patients' values. However, healthcare professionals struggle with how to elucidate patient values effectively. To offer guidance to healthcare professionals, we performed a scoping review, thereby mapping and categorizing instruments specifically developed to elucidate values of older adults in clinical practice.

A systematic search was conducted from inception up to October 2023 in PubMed, Psychinfo, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library. Articles on instruments clarifying older adults' values in a clinical setting were included. Articles on instruments elucidating patients' wishes, preferences, or goals were excluded.

After screening 7759 eligible studies, we included 37 studies outlining unique instruments. Instruments were subdivided into the following categories, based on the setting in which the instruments were used: "instruments with a general scope," "health record-based interventions," "advance directives," "advance care planning programs," and "decision support tools." Values were made plain in different ways, and instruments promoted different approaches. We further categorized these approaches alongside different axes: "open versus closed," "process-oriented versus decision-oriented," "confronting versus nonconfronting," and "explicit versus implicit." Some instruments focused on establishing a process of deliberation, whereas others focused on achieving treatment decisions.

We found and categorized a large range of instruments, which promoted different ways to elucidate older adults' values. This scoping review serves as an introduction for healthcare professionals to available instruments, which help to clarify patients' values. By categorizing the instruments along different axes of approaching value clarification, we offer healthcare professionals guidance for selecting an appropriate instrument.