- 著者
-
Keitaro Shinada
Takashi Kohno
Keiichi Fukuda
Michiaki Higashitani
Naoto Kawamatsu
Takeshi Kitai
Tatsuhiro Shibata
Makoto Takei
Kotaro Nochioka
Gaku Nakazawa
Hiroki Shiomi
Mitsunori Miyashita
Atsushi Mizuno
- 出版者
- The Japanese Circulation Society
- 雑誌
- Circulation Journal (ISSN:13469843)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- pp.CJ-23-0507, (Released:2023-11-22)
- 参考文献数
- 29
- 被引用文献数
-
1
Background: Enhanced discussions regarding end-of-life (EOL) are crucial to provide appropriate care for seriously ill patients. However, the current status of EOL discussions, especially their timing and influencing factors, among patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remains unknown.Methods and Results: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of bereaved family members of CVD patients who died at 10 tertiary care institutes in Japan. In all, 286 bereaved family members (38.2% male; median age 66.0 [interquartile range 58.0–73.0] years) of CVD patients were enrolled; of these, 200 (69.9%) reported that their families had had EOL discussions with physicians. The major topic discussed was resuscitation (79.0%), and 21.5% discussed the place of EOL care. Most discussions were held during hospitalization of the patient (88.2%). More than half (57.1%) the discussions were initiated less than 1 month before the patient died, and 22.6% of family members felt that this timing of EOL discussions was late. Bereaved family members’ perception of late EOL discussions was associated with the family members aggressive attitude towards life-prolonging treatment, less preparedness for bereavement, and less satisfaction with EOL care.Conclusions: Approximately 70% of bereaved family members of CVD patients had EOL discussions, which were often held shortly before the patient died. Further research is required to establish an ideal approach to EOL discussions at an appropriate time, which may improve the quality of EOL care.