Planning for Serious Illness by the General Public: A Population-Based Survey

Table 2

Variables associated with serious illness planning beliefs and behaviors.

	Important or very important to plan for care	Have discussed wishes for treatment	Have discussed unacceptable states of health	Prepared written advance care plan or living will
Overall	76.3%	51.4%	46.6%	16.6%
Sex
Male	69.0%^¶	47.1%^†	46.3%	15.3%
Female	82.8%^¶	55.3%^†	46.8%	17.7%
Age
18–34	75.9%	43.5%	40.9%	8.9%^†
35–54	74.6%	49.5%	47.2%	14.3%^†
55–64	76.6%	53.8%	46.8%	20.5%^†
≥65	81.3%	69.6%	56.3%	33.0%^†
Education
< or completed  High school	69.2%	48.9%	41.4%^†	17.3%
Some postsecondary	77.1%	53.0%	50.1%^†	17.3%
Completed  Postsecondary	79.2%	49.2%	42.5%^†	15.4%
Income
<$30,000	75.3%	53.1%	44.4%	18.5%
$30,000 to $59,999	74.6%	54.2%	47.5%	16.4%
$60,000–89,999	78.0%	46.0%	44.7%	12.5%
<$90,000	75.7%	51.0%	47.3%	17.6%
Refused	77.8%	52.9%	47.2%	17.8%
Residence
Large urban	74.9%	52.3%	47.7%	19.0%
Other	77.3%	50.7%	45.8%	14.8%
Health conditions
None	73.3%	43.2%^†	39.2%^¶	12.2%
One	75.3%	50.2%^†	44.9%^¶	18.1%
Two or more	80.8%	62.4%^†	56.8%^¶	20.7%
Involved in funeral planning
Never	70.2%^∗	36.5%^¶	34.3%^¶	7.9%^¶
Once	80.0%^∗	52.5%^¶	44.0%^¶	13.5%^¶
Twice or more	80.2%*	67.1%^¶	61.7%^¶	28.8%^¶

^∗𝑃<0.10.
^†𝑃<0.05.
^¶𝑃<0.001.