Information meetings stimulate older people to talk about their wishes at the end of life.

Abstract

Context: Information meetings aim to inform older people about end-of-life care, and prepare for advance care planning (ACP). Meetings are organized by general practitioners (GPs) inviting their patients or by other organizations targeting older people in general.

Objectives: To assess whether information meetings stimulate ACP (conversations with relatives, healthcare professionals, and documentation), and whether the type of meeting (GP versus other) and attendees' characteristics were associated with having ACP conversations with the GP in response to the meeting.

Methods: A pre-post interventional study with questionnaires immediately before (T0) and six months after (T2) the information meeting. 98 information meetings were organized (53 by GPs; 45 by other organizations). Older people attended a meeting and filled out questionnaires at T0 (N=1,917) and T2 (N=1,088). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were done.

Results: At T2, 26.4% of attendees had had an ACP conversation with their GP in response to the information meeting. Further, more older people had documented (T0: 39%; T2: 53%) and discussed their wishes with relatives (T0: 61%; T2: 84%) at T2. ACP engagement with GPs did not differ between GP or other meetings. Age (OR 1.05), non-Dutch background (OR 2.41), religiosity (OR 0.68) and previously having discussed end-of-life topics with a physician (OR 2.38) were associated with having ACP conversations with GPs.

Conclusions: Information meetings about end-of-life care stimulate older people to have ACP conversations with GPs and relatives and document wishes. The type of meeting, by GPs or others, does not affect ACP conversations with their GP.