The value of disease severity in predicting patient readiness to address end-of-life issues.
BACKGROUND
Although patient-physician discussion is the most important tool for end-of-life planning, less than 30% of seriously ill patients have held these discussions. While physicians use objective disease severity and recent clinical events to trigger end-of-life discussions, it is not known if such findings predict patient readiness. We evaluated the ability of disease severity measures and recent clinical events to predict patient readiness for end-of-life discussions in patients with chronic lung disease.


METHODS
The desire for discussion about end-of-life care was evaluated in 100 outpatients with a diagnosis of chronic lung disease presenting for pulmonary function testing. Objective disease severity was indicated by the percentage of the predicted forced expiratory volume, use of oral corticosteroids, a functional status score, frequency of recent hospitalizations, and required use of mechanical ventilation.


RESULTS
In multivariate analysis, patient desire for an end-of-life discussion with the physician was not associated with percentage of predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (odds ratio [OR], 0.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.96-1.03), oral corticosteroid use (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 0.40-4.54), functional status score (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 0.34-5.56), hospitalizations in the past year (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.09-1.20), or previous mechanical ventilation (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 0.34-5.56).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients appear no more or less interested in end-of-life discussions at later stages of chronic lung disease. Physicians cannot use disease severity measures or recent clinical events to accurately predict when patients desire end-of-life discussions. Focusing on physician skill in using specific communication strategies for patients at all stages of illness may be the most promising approach to increasing end-of-life discussions.
Pfeifer
Mark P
MP
Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, 323 E Chestnut St, Louisville, KY 40202, USA. markp@louisville.edu
Mitchell
Charlene K
CK
Chamberlain
Lynell
L
D000328:Adult; D032722:Advance Care Planning; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013727:Terminal Care