Advance directive and end-of-life care preferences among Chinese nursing home residents in Hong Kong.
OBJECTIVE
The objectives of the present study were to describe the knowledge and preferences of Hong Kong Chinese older adults regarding advance directives and end-of-life care decisions, and to investigate the predictors of preferences for advance directive and community end-of-life care in nursing homes.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in 140 nursing homes in Hong Kong. A total of 1600 cognitively normal Chinese older adults were recruited. Information on demographics, social, medical diseases, preferences of end-of-life care decisions, and advance directives were collected by face-to-face questionnaire interviews.


RESULTS
The mean age of the participants was 82.4 years; 94.2% of them would prefer to be informed of the diagnosis if they had terminal diseases and 88.0% preferred to have their advance directives regarding medical treatment in the future. Approximately 35% would prefer to die in their nursing homes. The significant independent predictors for the preference of advance directive included asking for relatives' advice, wishing to be informed of their terminal illness diagnoses, absence of stroke, and having no problems in self-care in European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions. For the preference for community end-of-life care and dying in nursing homes, the independent predictors included older age, not having siblings in Hong Kong, Catholic religion, nonbeliever of traditional Chinese religion, not receiving any old age allowance, lower Geriatric Depression Scale score, and being residents of government-subsidized nursing homes.


CONCLUSIONS
Most of our cognitively normal Chinese nursing home older adults prefer having an advance directive, and one-third of them would prefer to die in nursing homes.
Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. lwchu@hkucc.hku.hk
Leung-Wing
LW
Chu
James K H
JK
Luk
Elsie
E
Hui
Patrick K C
PK
Chiu
Cherry S Y
CS
Chan
Fiona
F
Kwan
Timothy
T
Kwok
Diana
D
Lee
Jean
J
Woo
D016223:Advance Directives; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009735:Nursing Homes; D057240:Patient Preference; D013727:Terminal Care