Stanley B, Guido J, Stanley M, Shortell D
JAMA. 1984 Sep 14;252(10):1302-6.
Informed consent with the elderly patient and the competency of this patient population have been neglected issues in medicine and law. Particularly, the competency of the elderly patient has received little empirical investigation. The present study examines the capacity of geriatric patients to consent to research participation. Competency is investigated through the use of hypothetical consent information on three dimensions: comprehension of consent material, quality of reasoning about the decision to participate or not participate in research, and reasonable choice regarding participation. The results indicate that elderly patients' choices about those projects in which participation is "reasonable" do not differ, by and large, from younger patients. However, the elderly show significantly poorer comprehension of consent information. Thus, screening for competency and providing special instructions may become an important part of the research process when the elderly are participants.
老年患者的知情同意以及该患者群体的行为能力在医学和法律领域一直是被忽视的问题。特别是，老年患者的行为能力很少得到实证研究。本研究考察了老年患者同意参与研究的能力。通过使用关于三个维度的假设性同意信息来调查行为能力：对同意材料的理解、关于参与或不参与研究的决定的推理质量以及关于参与的合理选择。结果表明，总体而言，老年患者对那些参与是“合理”的项目的选择与年轻患者没有差异。然而，老年人对同意信息的理解明显较差。因此，当老年人作为参与者时，筛查行为能力并提供特殊指导可能会成为研究过程的重要组成部分。
