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Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland

BACKGROUND: As people live longer, they are more likely to die over a prolonged period from incurable, chronic illnesses that occur more frequently in old age. Therefore, people will experience an increase in end-of-life discussions and decisions. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the preval...

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Autor principal: Wicki, Monika T
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4926284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27408720
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2050312116652637
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author Wicki, Monika T
author_facet Wicki, Monika T
author_sort Wicki, Monika T
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description BACKGROUND: As people live longer, they are more likely to die over a prolonged period from incurable, chronic illnesses that occur more frequently in old age. Therefore, people will experience an increase in end-of-life discussions and decisions. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence and nature of end-of-life decisions for people with disabilities in Swiss residential homes. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey in the three biggest German-speaking regions in Switzerland (N = 209) was conducted. SETTING: All of the residential homes for adults with disabilities (N = 209) were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey. The response quote was 76.7%. Directors provided information on 82 deaths. Chi-square and t-tests were used to study differences in prevalence and nature of end-of-life decisions between people with intellectual disability (ID) and people with other disabilities. RESULTS: An end-of-life decision was taken in 53.7% of the cases (n = 44). For people with ID, the decision to withhold treatment had been taken more often (28.9%, 13 cases) than for people with other disabilities (8.1%, 3 cases) (χ(2) (1, N = 82) = 5.58, p = 0.017). CONCLUSION: The study provides insight in end-of-life decision-making for people with disabilities in Switzerland. The results have implications on surrogate decision-making for people with ID living in residential homes. As the study partly confirms the results of previous studies, further studies will be necessary.
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spelling pubmed-49262842016-07-12 Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland Wicki, Monika T SAGE Open Med Original Article BACKGROUND: As people live longer, they are more likely to die over a prolonged period from incurable, chronic illnesses that occur more frequently in old age. Therefore, people will experience an increase in end-of-life discussions and decisions. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence and nature of end-of-life decisions for people with disabilities in Swiss residential homes. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey in the three biggest German-speaking regions in Switzerland (N = 209) was conducted. SETTING: All of the residential homes for adults with disabilities (N = 209) were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey. The response quote was 76.7%. Directors provided information on 82 deaths. Chi-square and t-tests were used to study differences in prevalence and nature of end-of-life decisions between people with intellectual disability (ID) and people with other disabilities. RESULTS: An end-of-life decision was taken in 53.7% of the cases (n = 44). For people with ID, the decision to withhold treatment had been taken more often (28.9%, 13 cases) than for people with other disabilities (8.1%, 3 cases) (χ(2) (1, N = 82) = 5.58, p = 0.017). CONCLUSION: The study provides insight in end-of-life decision-making for people with disabilities in Switzerland. The results have implications on surrogate decision-making for people with ID living in residential homes. As the study partly confirms the results of previous studies, further studies will be necessary. SAGE Publications 2016-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4926284/ /pubmed/27408720 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2050312116652637 Text en © The Author(s) 2016 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Article
Wicki, Monika T
Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland
title Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland
title_full Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland
title_fullStr Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland
title_full_unstemmed Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland
title_short Withholding treatment and intellectual disability: Second survey on end-of-life decisions in Switzerland
title_sort withholding treatment and intellectual disability: second survey on end-of-life decisions in switzerland
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4926284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27408720
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2050312116652637
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