No abstract

Caring for persons with CHF can affect the well-being of their informal caregivers, which may ultimately have consequences for the CHF patient's health. Further studies are needed to clarify these issues and to examine the role of informal caregivers in the management of CHF.

OBJECTIVES-To determine the role terminally ill patients would opt to have their loved ones and physicians play in healthcare decisions should they lose decision-making capacity and how this changes over time. DESIGN-Serial interviews.SETTING-The study institutions were The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland, and St. Vincent's Hospital, in New York.PARTICIPANTS-One hundred forty-seven patients with cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or heart failure, at baseline and 3 and 6 months.RESULTS-Patients' baseline decision control preferences varied widely, but most opted for shared decision-making, leaning slightly toward independence from their loved ones. This did not change significantly at 3 or 6 months. Fiftyseven percent opted for the same degree of decision control at 3 months as at baseline. In a generalized estimating equation model adjusted for time, moreindependent decision-making was associated with college education (P =.046) and being female (P =.01), whereas more-reliant decision-making was associated with age (P<.001). Patients leaned toward more reliance upon physicians to make best-interest determinations at diagnosis but opted for physicians to decide based upon their own independent wishes (substituted judgment) over time, especially if college educated.