Health Surrogates for Older Adults Often Don't Know Their Care Preferences

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found a lack of care preference knowledge by health surrogates can lead to harmful decisions for older adults, reports Medical Xpress . The investigators enrolled 349 participants 55 and older from the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, as well as their health surrogates. Sixty-six percent of surrogates rated themselves as "extremely confident" in their knowledge of what health states the recipient would find acceptable in the event of a serious illness, but only one in five actually knew what they wanted. "Recipients and surrogates need help to see the importance of more communication," said Yale University Professor Terri Fried. This help might include, for instance, interventions like a formal assessment of surrogates' knowledge of their relative's preferences in terms of specific health consequences. "That could increase the motivation for having the conversation," Fried concluded.