Elderly veterans' beliefs concerning life-sustaining treatment and the control of their end-of-life health and health care.
OBJECTIVE
This study used qualitative methods to explore patients' beliefs about control of their end-of-life health and health care.


METHODS
The authors recruited 30 elderly patients from a large, urban Veterans Administration medical center in the United States and engaged them in semistructured interviews about end-of-life care concepts. Using grounded theory methods, they coded, categorized, and compared responses.


RESULTS
The authors discovered that patients' decisions about using life sustaining treatment were interconnected with their beliefs about their degree of control over circumstances and the role of external factors, including a higher power; institutions and individuals; medical interventions; medical conditions; and luck, chance, or fate.


CONCLUSIONS
The results shed light on why patients do or do not take active roles in advance decisions concerning the use of life-sustaining treatment.
Rodriguez
Keri L
KL
VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, University of Pittsburgh, USA.
Young
Amanda J
AJ
D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000523:psychology*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*