ICU Admission Preferences in the Hypothetical Event of Acute Critical Illness: A Survey of Very Old Norwegians and Their Next-of-Kins.

OBJECTIVES

To explore older patients' ICU admission preferences and their next-of-kins' ability to predict these preferences.

DESIGN

Self-administered survey.

SETTING

Three outpatient clinics, urban tertiary teaching hospital, Norway.

PATIENTS

Purposive sample of outpatients 80 years old or older regarded as potential ICU candidates and their next-of-kins.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

We asked about the patients' ICU admission preferences in three hypothetical scenarios of acute critical illness. Next-of-kin respondents were asked to make a proxy statement regarding the older respondents' wishes regarding ICU admission. For each treatment choice, all respondents could provide their level of confidence. Additionally, we sought to identify demographic and healthcare-related characteristics that potentially influenced ICU admission preferences and proxy accuracy. Of 202 outpatients 80 years old or older, equal proportions opted for (39%; CI, 33-45%) and against (40%; CI, 34-46%) ICU admission, and one in five (21%; CI, 17-26%) did not wish to engage decision-making. Male gender, religiosity, and prior ICU experience increased the likelihood of older respondents opting for ICU admission. Although next-of-kins' proxy statements only weakly agreed with the older respondents' true ICU admission preferences (52%; CI, 45-59%), they agreed with the next-of-kins' own ICU admission preferences (79%; CI, 73-84%) to a significantly higher degree. Decisional confidence was high for both the older and the next-of-kin respondents.

CONCLUSIONS

In this purposive sample of Norwegian potential ICU candidates 80 years old or older, we found substantial variation in the ICU admission preferences of very old patients. The next-of-kins' proxy statements did not align with the ICU admission preferences of the older respondents in half of the pairs, but next-of-kins' and older respondents' confidence levels in rendering these judgments were high.