Table 2 Physician agreement with statements describing the process of informing patients and families about what dementia looks like at the time of diagnosis (n [%])
From: General practitioners perceptions on advance care planning for patients living with dementia
Statement | n* | Strongly disagree | Moderately disagree | Neither agree nor disagree | Moderately agree | Strongly agree | Don’t know | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | Facilitates later decision-making because families are better prepared | 132 | 3 [2.3] | 11 [8.3] | 27 [20.5] | 60 [45.5] | 31 [23.5] | 0 |
b | Will increase requests for inappropriately high levels of pain relieving medication | 131 | 48 [36.1] | 53 [39.8] | 22 [16.5] | 7 [5.3] | 1 [0.8] | 2 [1.5] |
c | Will increase requests for hastening death | 131 | 49 [36.8] | 46 [34.6] | 29 [21.8] | 7 [5.3] | 0 | 2 [1.5] |
d | Will increase patients’ and families’ anxiety unnecessarily | 133 | 11 [8.3] | 26 [19.5] | 21 [15.8] | 46 [34.6] | 29 [21.8] | 0 |
e | Is not needed because families will witness patient’s decline later and this will sufficiently facilitate decision-making | 133 | 32 [24.1] | 48 [36.1] | 20 [15.0] | 22 [16.5] | 11 [8.3] | 0 |
f | Is not necessary as most patients will not progress to severe dementia | 132 | 37 [28.0] | 55 [41.7] | 24 [18.2] | 15 [11.4] | 1 [0.8] | 0 |