Knowledge of CPR and Code Status Discussions in Traumatically Injured Older Adults: Does Health Literacy Matter?

Code Status Discussions (CSDs), CPR understanding, and health literacy is understudied in traumatically injured older adults. We hypothesized that traumatically injured older adults and their families would have limited understanding of CPR and code status, and that lower health literacy would be associated with reduced advance care planning knowledge. We surveyed injured adults ≥65 or their surrogates to assess baseline code status, health literacy, and CPR discussions. Univariate and multivariable analyses were conducted. Among 201 respondents 55% had low health literacy. Only 38% had discussions about CPR, and 21% were asked about code status during admission. Surrogates similarly overestimated CPR success and were unaware of code status when compared to patients (p > 0.05). Lower health literacy was associated with decreased odds of seeking additional CPR information and less confidence in CPR effectiveness knowledge (p < 0.05). Older adults admitted after injury and surrogates for those incapacitated had an overall poor understanding of code status, CPR, and had low health literacy.