Planning for the Future: Advance Care Planning Knowledge, Discussion and Decision-Making Among Older, Sexual Minority Adults.
Mekiayla C Singleton, Elissa Kozlov, M Reul Friedman and 1 others
PMID 39697061WHAT IT FOUND
Among older sexual minority adults, White participants were significantly more likely to know about and discuss advance care planning than Black participants.
Comfort with medical decision-making was linked to age and health status, but income and marital status showed unexpected associations.
Key findings
01White respondents had more than 3 times higher odds of having heard of advance care planning compared to Black respondents.
02White respondents had more than 2 times higher odds of having had advance care planning discussions compared to Black respondents.
03Men had 55% lower odds of having had advance care planning discussions compared to women respondents.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used a convenience sample recruited online, which excludes individuals without internet access or digital literacy and limits generalizability. The measure of comfort with medical decision-making was not explicitly tied to advance care planning, so it may not reflect comfort with end-of-life discussions specifically. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causality or explain why higher income and marriage were associated with lower comfort with medical decision-making.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the University of Southern California’s Institutional Review Board exemption, with no external funding mentioned.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that higher income or marriage equates to greater comfort with medical decision-making in this population. The survey found that respondents in the $70,000–$99,000 income bracket and married individuals had significantly lower odds of being very comfortable with medical decisions compared to their lower-income or single counterparts.