Communication between older people and their health care agents: Results of an intervention

This study examined an intervention to help high-functioning community-dwelling older people communicate their wishes for care at the end of life with someone they would trust to make health care decisions for them if necessary. Groups consisted of dyads of older people and their potential or designated health care agents randomly assigned to the intervention (STEP program) or control group. STEP participants received three group sessions with educational and support components. For individual participants, there was a statistically significant difference between groups on knowledge of the health care proxy form and the roles and responsibilities of the agent. For the dyads of older people and their agents, there was a significantly higher mean communication score for the STEP participants than for the control group. The findings demonstrate that it is possible to affect advance communication about wishes at the end of life through a group intervention.