Characterizing the public's preferential attitudes toward end-of-life care options: a role for the threshold technique?

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To assess the Threshold Technique's (TT) feasibility in community-wide surveys of U.S. Medicare beneficiaries' preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care options.

Study setting

Study participants were community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries in four different regions in the United States.

Study design

During personal interviews, participants considered four EOL scenarios, each presenting a choice between a less intense and more intense care option.

Data collection

Participants selected their initially favored option. Depending on that choice, in the subsequent TT the length of life offered by the more intense option was systematically increased or decreased until the participant "switched" to his or her initially rejected option.

Principal findings</

SUBMITTER: Trafford Crump R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3742562 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature