title: [Taking decisions at the end of life. A survey of the attitude of critically ill patients against death].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An attitude of refusal regarding death still persists in our society and the majority of patients do not usually take decisions related to the end of life.
  
  
  METHODS
  From June 1st to December 31st, 2000, 88 first-degree relatives were interviewed concerning patient's preparation before his/her death. Patients considered to be candidates to take decisions about end of life were those with poor quality of life and previously admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Relatives were interviewed regarding organ donation, vital willingness, legal representative, civil willingness and patient's knowledge of disease and wish to limit therapeutic efforts in case of extreme severity. Previous quality of life was measured according to the Karnofsky scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  20% patients had donated organs, none had vital willingness and 44% had civil willingness. When patients were divided into groups of those with and without legal willingness, vital representative, and willgness to donate organs and to limit therapeutic effort, there were no statistically significant differences except for patients with vital representatives who were significantly younger.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Society needs to advance progressively towards the acceptance and preparation of death, so that decisions taken at the end of life, particularly in the ICUs, may represent, as accurately as possible, a patient's scale of values.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Intensiva, Hospital del Mar, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, España. 13713@imas.imim.es
authors.forename: José F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Solsona
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sucarrats
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maull
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barbat
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Villares
mesh_terms: D032722:Advance Care Planning / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology*; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013030:Spain