OBJECTIVE To examine the attitudes of Hong Kong Chinese elders with chronic disease with regard to advance directives and life-sustaining treatment. DESIGN Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. SETTING Medical unit of a regional teaching hospital in Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS In-patients aged 60 years or above with chronic disease. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Demographic profiles and attitudes t...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of lung cancer patients, their families, physicians and nurses on advance directives. METHODS The study employed a comparative descriptive design. A total of 124 participants from six general hospitals in Seoul and metropolitan area participated in this study from January 1, 2009 to November 15, 2009. Face-to-face interviews we...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to identify and compare the attitudes of patients and health care professionals towards advance directives. Advance directives promote recognition of the patient's autonomy, letting the individual exercise a certain measure of control over life-sustaining care and treatment in the eventuality of becoming incompetent. DESIGN Attitudes to advance directives we...

In the United Kingdom (UK), advance directives have recently received considerable attention from professional and voluntary organizations as well as medical journals and the media. However, despite such exposure, many doctors remain uncertain of the importance or relevance of advance directives with regard to their own clinical practice. This paper addresses these uncertainties by first explai...