Loading items....
Read the News of the Center
FROM THE UNIVERSITY
FROM THE CENTER'S FACULTY
Loading items....
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
How Do Surrogates Make Treatment Decisions for Patients with Dementia? An Experimental Survey Study
National Bureau of Economic Research
Feb 23, 2024
Despite the growing need for surrogate decision-making for older adults, little is known about how surrogates make decisions and whether advance directives would change decision-making. In a national survey, Lauren Hersch Nicholas, PhD, and co-authors found participants were more likely to indicate that surrogates should choose comfort care when a hospitalized older adult has dementia, even when the patient’s advance directives indicated s/he would prefer life-extending treatments.
Conversely, for hypothetical patients without dementia, respondents are more likely to state that the surrogate should choose life-extending treatments even when the patient had indicated s/he would want comfort care. Their findings suggest that older adults should choose proxy decision-makers with similar preferences to their own to increase preference-concordant surrogate decisions.
Read article>>
Center for Bioethics and Humanities
CU Anschutz
Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics and Humanities
13080 East 19th Avenue
Administrative Office Room 201
Aurora, CO 80045
303-724-3994
CMS Login