Skip Navigation


Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on January 26, 2009
Age and Ageing 2009 38(2):200-205; doi:10.1093/ageing/afn291
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
38/2/200    most recent
afn291v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Cotter, P. E.
Right arrow Articles by O’Keeffe, S. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Cotter, P. E.
Right arrow Articles by O’Keeffe, S. T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Changing attitudes to cardiopulmonary resuscitation in older people: a 15-year follow-up study

P. E. Cotter1, M. Simon1, C. Quinn1 and S. T. O’Keeffe2

1 Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, Ireland
2 Galway University Hospitals, Galway, Ireland

Address correspondence to: Shaun T O’Keeffe, Unit 4, Merlin Park Hospital, Galway, Ireland. Tel: (+353) 91775561; E-mail: sokanc{at}iolfree.ie.

Background: while it is well established that individual patient preferences regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may change with time, the stability of population preferences, especially during periods of social and economic change, has received little attention.

Objective: to elicit the resuscitation preferences of older Irish inpatients and to compare the results with an identical study conducted 15 years earlier.

Methods: one hundred and fifty older medical inpatients awaiting discharge in a university teaching hospital or a district general hospital subjects were asked about resuscitation preferences. Results were compared to those elicited from a hundred subjects in 1992.

Results: most patients (94%) felt it was a good idea for doctors to discuss CPR routinely with patients, compared with 39% in 1992. In their current health, 6% in 2007 and 76% in 1992 would refuse CPR. The independent predictors of refusal of CPR in current health on logistic regression were age and year of assessment. In the final model, those aged 75–84 years [OR 2.77 (95% CI 1.25–6.13), P = 0.02] and 85 years or more [OR 15.19 (4.26–54.15), P < 0.0001] were more likely than those aged 65–74 years (reference group) to refuse CPR. Those questioned in 2007 [OR 0.04 (0.02–0.81), P < 0.0001] were less likely than those questioned in 1992 (reference group) to refuse CPR.

Conclusions: there has been a significant shift in the attitudes of older Irish inpatients over 15 years towards favouring greater patient participation in decision making and an increased desire for resuscitation.

Keywords: patient preference, aged, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, elderly

Received 12 November 2007; accepted in revised form 29 August 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Postgrad. Med. J.Home page
L Bowker
A doctor's experience of resuscitation decision making for older patients: coping with change
Postgrad. Med. J., November 1, 2009; 85(1009): 569 - 572.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.