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Promoting the Use of Advance Directives: An Empirical Study
Mary Thoesen Coleman, MD, PhD;
Randy Jernecjic
Department of Family Medicine The Ohio State University Columbus
Arch Fam Med. 1996;5(7):382-383.
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In the recent article "Promoting the Use of Advance Directives: An Empirical Study," Richter et al1 found that structured discussion with patients and follow-up mailings substantially increased the use of advance directives. Based on our work, we stress the importance of the structured discussion in achieving desired results.
In our study, we tested whether education could increase completion of advance directives. Four groups of patients (n=20 in each group), aged 18 years and older, were randomly selected to receive either: (1) a distribution of advance directives at the office visit, (2) a distribution of advance directives plus patient-directed information emphasizing the importance of advance directives at the office visit, (3) a mailing of advance directives with patient-directed information, or (4) no intervention. Discussion with patients regarding the documents was not part of the intervention in any group.
Three months after the intervention, charts were audited for presence of
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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