Introduction: Advance Care Planning (ACP) holds various advantages, including reducing decision-making burdens for healthcare providers and families, minimizing futile life-sustaining treatments, enhancing the quality of end-of-life care for older adu...
Introduction: Advance Care Planning (ACP) holds various advantages, including reducing decision-making burdens for healthcare providers and families, minimizing futile life-sustaining treatments, enhancing the quality of end-of-life care for older adults, and preventing unnecessary healthcare expenditures. With increasing societal attention to dignified and comfortable end-of-life care in Korea, the Life-sustaining Treatment Decisions Act was enacted in 2018, fostering a culture of self-determination in end-of-life care planning. However, in Korea, ACP is still a relatively unfamiliar concept. Instead, emphasis is often placed solely on components like completing advance directives (ADs), thus neglecting the designation of surrogate decision-makers and discussions surrounding end-of-life care. Furthermore, despite the influence that various environmental factors have on ACP for older adults, previous studies have focused mainly on intrapersonal factors, highlighting the need for research that also considers interpersonal and community factors. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the overall level and subdomains of ACP among Korean older adults, based on the ecological model (McLeroy et al.,1988), and to elucidate the multilevel associations of ecological factors (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community) with ACP.
Methods: This study is a descriptive correlational research project. It was conducted after having translated and performed a content validity verification of the measurement tools for the dependent variable, and a pilot study. The study population consisted of 500 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years, recruiting 490 participants for the main survey and 10 participants for the pilot study. The pilot study involved a convenient sample from one community center for older adults who were surveyed face-to-face. The main survey was conducted using an online panel company that employed region-based quota sampling to survey 490 older adults through an online questionnaire. The dependent variable, ACP, was measured using the 34-item version of the “Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey” tool developed by Sudore et al. (2017), which was translated through a committee approach. Three translation committee members independently translated the original text. The final translation was developed in meetings with the researcher, as all members considered readability and appropriateness. A doctoral student in Korean literature then reviewed the Korean expressions. Introductory questions were then added to align the questionnaire with Korea’s cultural context. Subsequently, seven experts evaluated the translated version to calculate the content validity index, and necessary revisions were made for translation accuracy and cultural differences, resulting in a Korean version of the ACP measurement tool. Ecological factors included intrapersonal factors (demographic and health-related characteristics, attitudes toward death, eHealth literacy), interpersonal factors (type of household, family cohesion, family communication, social networks), and community factors (residential area, available resources) as independent variables. Data analysis was conducted using STATA 18.0, employing a multilevel analysis to identify ecological factors influencing overall ACP level.
Results: The mean score for overall ACP among the 490 participants was 2.63 ± 0.76 out of 5.00. Among the five subdomains, planning regarding specific health conditions and flexibility was particularly low. For intrapersonal factors, higher numbers of diagnosed diseases (β=0.24, p<.001), more positive attitudes toward death (β=-0.03, p=.002), and higher eHealth literacy (β=0.03, p<.001) were associated with a greater level of overall ACP. Regarding interpersonal factors, stronger family cohesion (β=0.02, p=.011), daily interaction with natural support network (β=0.16, p=.041), and higher function of professional support networks (β=0.01, p=.003) were associated with higher overall ACP. In terms of community factors, a greater number of social welfare facilities (β=0.00, p=.030) were associated with a higher level of overall ACP.
Conclusion: Through this study’s findings, it became evident that Korea still lags behind the USA and Europe in terms of ACP levels. This is due to limitations in current laws focusing solely on legal documents and cultural discomfort with discussing death. Additionally, it was recognized that older adults’ ACP reflects various social contexts, including interpersonal and community-level factors. Therefore, to activate ACP among Korean older adults, efforts should focus on facilitating discussions with family members to plan for end-of-life care while simultaneously addressing negative attitudes toward death through institutional support. In particular, the guidelines for healthcare providers who continuously manage chronic diseases must include the roles of consulting, registering, and reviewing advance care planning. Additionally, specialized training programs on specific consultation guidelines are required. Moreover, promoting older adults’ active participation in ACP requires a comprehensive approach that considers sociodemographic characteristics, environmental factors, and the individual’s worldview and beliefs.