Advance Care Planning Preferences in Hong Kong: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Community

• Published in: Healthcare (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 2; p. 384
• Main Author: Yu, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 17.02.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: advance care planning; Advance directives; aged; Cellular telephones; Cross-sectional studies; Death & dying; Hong Kong; Nursing homes; Older people; Palliative care; Planning; Polls & surveys; Population; Preferences; Hong Kong China; Hong Kong; aged; advance care planning
• ISSN: 2227-9032; 2227-9032
• DOI: 10.3390/healthcare10020384

(1) Background: Hong Kong is experiencing population aging, but there is little research on advance care planning. This research asks for community-dwelling older adults' views on advance care planning in order to provide a different angle to the results collected from nursing homes and hospitals. (2) Methods: The targeted respondents were people aged 55 or above. A total of 282 questionnaires were collected using the random sampling method. Respondents were asked whether they would make an advance care plan, whether they would prepare for their death, and whether they had received any death education; they were also given eight statements related to treatments and decision making. (3) Results: The study found that only 17% of the respondents would like to use advance care planning, even after it was explained to them. Advance care planning favorers would be more likely to insist on having wills and would be more likely to trust doctors rather than family members. (4) Conclusions: The results also suggested that the medical care and social support for end-of-life patients should be improved. The results also showed the importance of medical professionals as they showed that respondents wanted advice on end-of-life decision-making from medical professionals.