Advance Directive and End-of-Life Care Preferences Among Chinese Nursing Home Residents in Hong Kong

Objectives: The objectives of the present study were to describe the knowledge and preferences of Hong Kong Chinese older adults regarding advance directives and end-of-life care decisions, and to investigate the predictors of preferences for advance directive and community end-of-life care in nursing homes. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in 140 nursing homes in Hong Kong. A total of 1600 cognitively normal Chinese older adults were recruited. Information on demographics, social, medical diseases, preferences of end-of-life care decisions, and advance directives were collected by face-to-face questionnaire interviews. Results: The mean age of the participants was 82.4 years; 94.2% of them would prefer to be informed of the diagnosis if they had terminal diseases and 88.0% preferred to have their advance directives regarding medical treatment in the future. Approximately 35% would prefer to die in their nursing homes. The significant independent predictors for the preference of advance directive included asking for relatives' advice, wishing to be informed of their terminal illness diagnoses, absence of stroke, and having no problems in self-care in European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions. For the preference for community end-of-life care and dying in nursing homes, the independent predictors included older age, not having siblings in Hong Kong, Catholic religion, nonbeliever of traditional Chinese religion, not receiving any old age allowance, lower Geriatric Depression Scale score, and being residents of government-subsidized nursing homes. Conclusions: Most of our cognitively normal Chinese nursing home older adults prefer having an advance directive, and one-third of them would prefer to die in nursing homes. (J Am Med Dir Assoc 2011; 12: 143-152)