title: [Trusted person and living will: information and implementation defect].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The French law allows the persons of age to appoint a trusted person and to draft advance directives in case they are one day in a condition that prevents them from expressing their will regarding their health care. Our study objective was to assess patients' and relatives' knowledge and collecting their opinion regarding these means of expression of their will.
  
  
  METHODS
  An anonymous survey by self-administered questionnaire was conducted in the admission offices of the University Hospital of Nancy in April 2011. The questions focused on trusted person and anticipated directives.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We collected 367 answers, 61.8% of which were females. Average age of respondents was 48.7 years old (standard deviation: 15.6). Three fourths of respondents were informed of their possibility to appoint a trusted person and were able to establish the difference between a trusted person and a contact person. Respondents mainly chose their spouse (52%). They thought that the trusted person's opinion takes precedence over the family's or relatives' one (64.7%), given that this opinion is based on indications previously provided by the patient (74.8%). The majority of people surveyed were ignorant of the possibility to draft advance directives but were glad of it (57.5%). They would include herein their refusal of unreasonable obstinacy (75.8%), their wishes to withhold/withdraw of some treatments, to stop active treatments in case of high odds of chronic coma or vegetative state (52.8%) or their will to donate organ after death (50.6%). More than three fourths of the patients wished to include these informations on their health care card chip.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Legal means of expression of the patient's wishes and are not systematically known by the population. The possibility to appoint a trusted person is much more known than that to draft advance directives. After the release in December 2012 of the Sicard report regarding the end of life in France, an important information campaign of the general public remains to be undertaken.
authors.affiliation: EA 7299, Ethos, faculté de médecine, université de Lorraine, 9, avenue de la Forêt-de-Haye, BP 184, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Service de médecine légale et droit de la santé, faculté de médecine, 54000 Nancy, France. Electronic address: gaelle.guyon@univ-lorraine.fr.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guyon
authors.affiliation: EA 7299, Ethos, faculté de médecine, université de Lorraine, 9, avenue de la Forêt-de-Haye, BP 184, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Service de médecine légale et droit de la santé, faculté de médecine, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garbacz
authors.affiliation: EA 7299, Ethos, faculté de médecine, université de Lorraine, 9, avenue de la Forêt-de-Haye, BP 184, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Service d'anesthésie-réanimation chirurgicale, CHU de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.affiliation: Faculté de droit, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bohl
authors.affiliation: Service de médecine L, addictologie, CHU de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maheut-Bosser
authors.affiliation: EA 7299, Ethos, faculté de médecine, université de Lorraine, 9, avenue de la Forêt-de-Haye, BP 184, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Service de médecine légale et droit de la santé, faculté de médecine, 54000 Nancy, France; Service ATOL, CHU de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Coudane
authors.affiliation: EA 7299, Ethos, faculté de médecine, université de Lorraine, 9, avenue de la Forêt-de-Haye, BP 184, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Service de médecine interne, immunologie clinique et allergologie, CHU de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kanny
authors.affiliation: Université Joseph-Fourier, ThEMAS TIMC-IMAG (UMR CNRS 5525), CHU de Grenoble, 38043 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gillois
authors.affiliation: EA 7299, Ethos, faculté de médecine, université de Lorraine, 9, avenue de la Forêt-de-Haye, BP 184, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Service de médecine légale et droit de la santé, faculté de médecine, 54000 Nancy, France; Pôle recherche et innovation, CHU de Nancy, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Claudot
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D024362:Advance Directive Adherence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001364:Awareness; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016224:Living Wills / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035502:Trust; D014341:Trustees / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Directives anticipées; Droit des patients; End of life care; Fin de vie; Health care proxy; Living will; Patient rights; Personne de confiance