Decision-making capacity and communication about care of older people during their last three months of life

BMC Palliative Care

Table 2 Communication of physician with older people and their relatives and decision-making capacity before death (LASA-sample, n=165, rounded percentages)*

	Full DMC	Limited DMC before death
		total	more than a week before death	a week or less before death
	n=39	n=126	n=56	n=70
	(%)	(%)	(%)	(%)
Received care in general in accordance with preferences of patient ^†
Yes	71	71	60	81
Partly	8	12	13	10
No	3	3	7	0
Don’t know	18	14	20	9
Physician communicated understandably concerning treatment choices ^{† ‡}
Yes, to patient and relative	56	58	49	65
Yes, only to patient	6	5	2	8
Yes, only to relative	0	20	31	11
No	19	9	13	6
Don’t know	19	8	6	11
Patient satisfaction with contact between physician and patient ^†
(Very) satisfied	71	67	54	77
Neutral	18	14	13	15
(Very) unsatisfied	0	2	4	0
Don’t know	12	18	30	9
Satisfaction of relative with contact between physician and patient
(Very) satisfied	79	75	71	79
Neutral	12	18	20	16
(Very) unsatisfied	9	7	9	5
Satisfaction of relative with his/her contact with physician
(Very) satisfied	81	73	69	76
Neutral	10	18	20	16
(Very) unsatisfied	10	9	11	8

^*Missing observations were less than 5% of the total n, except for the group ‘full DMC until death’, between 1 and 9 missing observations.
^†Difference between the groups ‘limited DMC more than a week before death’ and ‘limited DMC a week or less before death’ significant (p < 0.05).
^‡Difference between groups ‘full DMC until death’ and ‘limited DMC before death significant’ significant (p < 0.05).

ISSN: 1472-684X