Purpose: Advance care planning (ACP) is the process of communicating a person’s preferences regarding future medical care. In Taiwan, people can visit an ACP outpatient clinic and complete advance directives (AD). ACP is an emerging medical service, and information about completing AD is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting AD completion among ACP clinic outpatients at a regional hospital in southern Taiwan.
Methods: This retrospective study used chart reviews to evaluate participants who attended an ACP outpatient clinic from 1 January 2019 to 28 February 2020. AD completion was analyzed using logistic regression after adjusting for covariates including previously signing do-not-resuscitate (DNR) forms.
Results: A total of 144 participants were included, and the AD completion rate was 90.2%. Participants attending ACP sessions were more likely to be older, female, having a high school education and below, better health status, paying less for ACP sessions, and previously signing DNR forms. After adjusting for the covariates, participants who had previously signed DNR forms were more likely to complete AD (aOR 14.03, 95% CI 1.56-126.06). In addition, the presence of a social worker in the ACP team was significantly associated with higher AD completion (aOR 5.74, 95% CI 1.05-31.32).
Conclusions: Participants previously signing DNR forms were more likely to completion AD. In addition to tailoring ACP discussions about the benefits of AD and providing supplement materials to improve AD completion, further strategies are needed to encourage the public in southern Taiwan to visit ACP outpatient clinics, especially for those who were unfamiliar with concepts such as DNR or life-sustaining treatment at the end of life.