Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary

We all know that family and friends are important, and that the people close to us have a big impact on our health. Now, a team of researchers has found that family support is also important when older people with advanced illnesses think about how the type of care they would prefer as they age.

 Understanding how we would prefer to be cared for as we age is vital to providing person-centered care. Person-centered care puts individual values and preferences at the heart of care decisions.  It focuses attention on the health and life goals we have individually.  Person-centered care is considered a gold standard for health care.

Until now, we haven’t had a good understanding of how older adults form care preferences. To learn more about care preferences and how they might be influenced for older adults with advanced illnesses, a team of researchers from the United Kingdom searched for existing medical studies about the topic and collected the results. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The research team looked at 57 studies about the preferences of older adults with advanced illness.  They included research that investigated preferences for where people wanted to be cared for, the kinds of communication and decision-making they wanted, and what quality of life they hoped to have over time. Continue reading →