Comparison of Consensus on Life-sustaining Treatment of the Elderly in Care Facilities and Family Member Dyad.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to compare the agreement in opinion between the elderly in care facilities and their family members regarding the life-sustaining treatment at the deathbed and to find out if the intentions of the elderly are being properly reflected in their deathbed treatment.


METHODS
Data were collected from 85 elderly individuals at five care facilities in Chunkcheongnam-do and 85 family members. The data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire from July 22, 2013 to August 15, 2014. A total of 170 cases were analyzed using SPSS version 21.


RESULTS
First, the family members' preference for life-sustaining treatment was higher than the patients' preference. The preference between the elderly and their family members regarding life-sustaining treatment was statistically significant with regards to oral nutrition, pain control through oral and anal administration, pain control through intravenous administration, transfusion, and admission to an intensive care unit. Second, looking at the agreement between elderly and guardians regarding life-sustaining treatment, there was significant concordance about general testing, oral nutrition, intravenous hydration, intravenous nutrition, antibiotic treatment for severe infection with low resiliency, admission to an intensive care unit, blood pressure increase medication use, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and tracheotomy.


CONCLUSIONS
It is essential for the medical staff to confirm agreement between the elderly and their family members regarding life-sustaining treatment, and if such a prior agreement is not feasible, the patient's intention should be considered more actionable than their family members.
Department of Health Administration, Kongju National University, Kongju, Korea.
Sunmi
S
Lim
Department of Health Administration, Kongju National University, Kongju, Korea.
Seong Ae
SA
Hong
Department of Health and Medical Administration, Doowon Technical University College, Anseong, Korea.
Hyun Sook
HS
Lee
comparison of consensus; life-sustaining treatment; the elderly-family member dyads