This study is a randomized trial to test whether a decision aid can help to improve the quality of decision making about feeding options in care of patients with dementia.
This research study is a cluster randomized controlled trial of a decision aid to improve decision-making about feeding options for patients with advanced dementia. Surrogate decision-makers in the nursing homes randomized to the intervention will review the decision aid and be prompted to discuss it with the primary health care provider, while those in the control sites receive usual care. We measure the immediate, 1 and 3 month effects of the decision aid on the quality of surrogate decision-making for nursing home residents with advanced dementia.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
256
Structured decision aid on feeding options in dementia care with prompting to share information in discussion with primary treating health care provider.
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Decisional Conflict Scale
Decisional Conflict Scale measures conflict in decisions Total scale range 1-5 with lower scores indicating less conflict.
Time frame: 3 months
Percent With Treatment Decisions
Treatment decisions are expressed as percentage of subjects with discussions of new tube feeding, new orders to forego tube feeding, and new choices for assisted feeding.
Time frame: 3 months
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