Planning for Serious Illness amongst Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Table 2

Values, knowledge and behaviors related to planning for the end of Life.

	55–64 years (𝑁=171) %	≥65 years (𝑛=112) %	Overall (𝑁=283) %
Importance of planning for future medical Care
Not at all or somewhat important	23.4	18.8	21.6
Important or very important	76.6	81.3	78.4
Importance of planning for own funeral
Not at all or somewhat important	39.2	35.7	37.8
Important or very important	60.8	64.3	62.2
Familiarity with term “Living Will”
Not at all familiar	7.0	6.3	6.7
Some basic understanding	32.7	30.4	31.8
Fairly or very good understanding	60.2	63.4	61.5
Familiarity with term “Advance Care Plan”
Not at all familiar	28.1	23.2	26.1
Some basic understanding	35.1	37.5	36.0
Fairly or very good understanding	36.8	39.3	37.6
Discussed unacceptable states of health	53.2	43.8	49.5
Discussed wishes for treatment	53.8^†	69.6^†	60.1
Designated a substitute decision-maker	34.5^†	52.7^†	41.7
Prepared written LW or ACP	20.5^†	33.0^†	25.4

^†𝑃<0.05 using the chi-square test for proportions with a Bonferonni correction.