Goals of care discussions and treatment limitation decisions in European acute geriatric units: a one-day cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It is important to pursue goal-concordant care and to prevent non-beneficial interventions in older people.

Aim

To describe serious illness communication and decision-making practices in hospitalised older people in Europe.

Setting/participants

Data on advance directives, goals of care (GOC) discussions and treatment limitation decisions were collected about patients aged 75-years and older admitted to 23 European acute geriatric units (AGUs).

Results

In this cohort of 590 older persons [59.5% aged 85 and above, 59.3% female, median premorbid Clinical Frailty Score (CFS) 6], a formal advance directive was recorded in 3.3% and a pre-hospital treatment limitation in 14.0% with significant differences between European regions (respectively P < 0.001 and

SUBMITTER: Piers R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11836419 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature