Feasibility and acceptability of a web-based advance care plan for dementia.
Liza L Behrens, Brianna Morgan, Emily Summerhayes and 4 others
PMID 35259603WHAT IT FOUND
Eight community-dwelling pairs of people with dementia and their surrogate decision makers found the adapted dementia advance care planning website acceptable, though people with dementia rated it lower than surrogates and some struggled with videos, language, and navigation.
Key findings
01Eight dyads completed the study, and all were able to complete all website modules within the 60 minutes spent with research assistants.
02People with dementia rated the website lower than surrogates in all acceptability domains, but the difference was not statistically significant.
03Some people with dementia found the website hard to use because of visual or hearing problems, confusing language, unclear questions, response options, and video captions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was very small and used convenience sampling from an existing trial, so it cannot show how most people with dementia or their families would respond. Participants were community-dwelling, not living in nursing homes, even though the tool is aimed at nursing-home populations. The website was still being developed, and participants could not use it after the video call, so real-world use was not tested. No outcome was measured to show that it changed care plans, decisional conflict, or end-of-life care. The paper did not record exact time spent on the website.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article metadata lists NIH and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this as evidence that the website improves advance care planning outcomes. It was a small pilot with community-dwelling dyads, no nursing-home participants, and no test of whether it changes care plans.