ISSN : 2663-2187

Preparing Family Members of Older Adults with Multi Morbidity for Advance Care Discussion: Protocol of a Pilot RCT

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Doris YP Leung, Joyce OK Chung, Sau Fong Leung
ยป doi: 10.48047/AFJBS.6.12.2024.3929-3934

Abstract

Family involvement has been identified as an important facilitator to advance care planning (ACP) implementation. Some older adults clearly indicated to relinquish their right to plan for EOL care and preferred to allow their doctor or their family or the two parties together to make the decision for them in ACP conversations. Given longer life expectancies, many adult children will sooner or later become family caregivers who will be called upon to support older relatives. The study aims to assess the preliminary efficacy of a community-based ACP-related intervention for raising awareness of the importance of engaging in ACP discussions and enhancing knowledge to support their older relatives to engage in ACP conversations. This is a pilot 2-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial with follow-ups at Week 2 and Week 4 after enrolment. Sixty family members of older adults with multi-morbidity in the community will be recruited, and randomized to either the ACP group to receive one 2.5-hour educational session or the wait-list control group. Outcomes of the two groups will be compared using generalized estimating equations. This study will provide information for designing a full-scale trial to shed light in developing guidelines in promoting ACP in the community

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