ArticlePloS one2024
Attitudes towards advance care planning amongst community-based older people in England.
Article in PloS one, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Good care for older people at the end of life: Shared responsibilities, flexible boundaries.Future healthcare journal · 2026Article
- Exploring readiness for advance care planning in Japan: A qualitative interview study with older adults with frailty, family caregivers, and health and social care practitioners in the homecare setting.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAdvance care planning has been advocated as a way for people to have their wishes recorded and respected in relation to types of treatment and place of care. However, uptake in England remains low.
aimsTo examine the views of older, well, adults towards Advance Care Plans (ACPs) and planning for end-of-life care, in order to inform national policy decisions.
methodsA mixed methods approach was adopted, involving individual and mini-group qualitative interviews (n = 76, ages 45-85), followed by a quantitative survey (n = 2294, age 55+). The quantitative sample was based on quotas in age, gender, region, socio-economic grade, and ethnicity, combined with light weighting to ensure the findings were representative of England.
resultsKnowledge and understanding of advance care planning was low, with only 1% of survey respondents reporting they had completed an ACP for themselves. Common reasons for not putting wishes into writing were not wanting/needing to think about it now, the unpredictability of the future, trusting family/friends to make decisions, and financial resources limiting real choice.
conclusionWhilst advance care planning is seen as a good idea in theory by older, well, adults living in the community, there is considerable reticence in practice. This raises questions over the current, national policy position in England, on the importance of written ACPs. We propose that policy should instead focus on encouraging ongoing conversations between individuals and all those (potentially) involved in their care, about what is important to them, and on ensuring there are adequate resources in community networks and health and social care systems, to be responsive to changing needs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.