AHRQ-Sponsored/Funded Research Projects on End-of-Life Care
Quality-of-Life Factors in Geriatric Medicine Decisions,
1984-86, Grant No. HS05303, University of Washington:
Compared similarities and differences among elderly
patients, spouses, and physicians regarding their quality-of-life
values.
Effects of Advance Directives on Medical Care, 1987-91,
Grant No. HS05617, University of California, San Diego:
Examined the effect of advance directives on the costs of
health care, satisfaction with health care, and well-being
among patients with life-threatening illnesses.
Living Wills: For Primary Care, AIDS, and Cancer Patients,
1989-91, Grant No. HS06120, Massachusetts General
Hospital: Studied use of living wills, stability of preferences,
and discussions between physicians and ambulatory
patients.
Long-term Stability of Treatment Preferences, 1989-95,
Grant No. HS06343, University of Washington: Determined
the long-term stability and predictive validity of preferences
for life-sustaining treatment and health states that patients
consider worse than death.
Making Choices and Allocating Resources Near Life's End,
1990-95, Grant No. HS06655, University of North Carolina:
Explored treatment preferences and congruency among
elderly patients with severe heart disease, lung disease,
and cancer.
Advance Directives—Effectiveness of Mandatory Notice,
1991-94, Grant No. HS07075, Dartmouth College:
Investigated the impact of the Patient Self-Determination
Act, use of advance directives, and treatment preferences of
severely ill patients.
Advance Directives and Communication in Medical Care,
1991-96, Grant No. HS06912, University of California, San
Diego: Studied the effects of advance directives on personal
autonomy, cost of health care, well-being, and patient-physician
communication among patients with life-threatening
illness.
Nursing Home Residents' Treatment Preferences, 1992-95,
Grant No. HS06815, University of Pennsylvania: Examined
the use of advance directives in nursing homes to ascertain
whether there were institutional and/or individual factors
associated with treatment preferences.
Advance Directive Discussions With Elderly Outpatients,
1993-95, Grant No. HS07660, Kent State University:
Analyzed the impact of physician-initiated discussions
regarding advance directives and physicians' ability to
predict treatment preferences of their elderly outpatients.
Ethnicity and Attitudes Toward Advance Care Directives,
1993-96, Grant No. HS07001, University of Southern
California: Explored attitudes toward medical technology,
withholding and withdrawing treatment, and advance care
documents among different ethnic groups.
Advance Directives, Proxies, and Electronic Medical
Records, 1993-97, Grant No. HS07632, Indiana University:
Studied the ability to encourage discussions about advance
directives and documentation of patient treatment
preferences through a computer system.
Systematic Application of a Health Care Directive, 1994-98,
Grant No. HS07878, McMaster University: Examined the
effects of the systematic application of the Let Me Decide
directive on patient and family satisfaction with health care,
health care use, and health care costs among nursing home
residents.
Resource Use in Seriously Ill Medicare Patients, 1995-98,
Grant Nos. HS08158/HS09129, Dartmouth College:
Investigated Medicare beneficiaries' utilization of services,
the Study to Understand Prognoses and Preference for
Outcomes and Risks of Treatment (SUPPORT) intervention to
improve decisionmaking, and implementation of the Patient
Self-Determination Act.
Testing the Effectiveness of Advance Medical Directives,
1995-2001, Grant No. HS08180, Kent State University:
Compared different methods of collecting advance directive
information to improve surrogates' ability to predict patient
preferences for life-sustaining treatment and measured
stability of patient treatment preferences over time.
Medical Decisions and Advance Care Planning in the
Nursing Home, 1998-2000, Grant. No. HS09833, Hebrew
Home of Greater Washington: Studied factors influencing
end-of-life medical decisions and use of advance directives
among nursing home residents.
A Detailed Profile of End-of-Life Care in Medicare, 1999-2001, Grant No. HS10561, RAND Corporation: Investigated
health care use among Medicare beneficiaries at the end of
life.
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