Tobias Luck, Francisca S Rodriguez, Birgitt Wiese, Carolin van der Leeden, Kathrin Heser, Horst Bickel, Jürgen In der Schmitten, Hans-Helmut Koenig, Siegfried Weyerer, Silke Mamone, Tina Mallon, Michael Wagner, Dagmar Weeg, Angela Fuchs, Christian Brettschneider, Jochen Werle, Martin Scherer, Wolfgang Maier, Steffi G Riedel-Heller
BACKGROUND: Completion of advance directives (ADs) and power of attorney (POA) documents may protect a person's autonomy in future health care situations when the individual lacks decisional capacity. As such situations become naturally much more common in old age, we specifically aimed at providing information on (i) the frequency of ADs/POA in oldest-old individuals and (ii) factors associated with having completed ADs/POA. METHODS: We analyzed data of oldest-old primary care patients (85+ years; including community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals) within the German AgeQualiDe study...
April 13, 2017: BMC Geriatrics