Abstract
Objective
To determine whether persons living with HIV find a disease-specific advance directive more acceptable than a generic directive.
Design
Randomized clinical trial.
Setting
HIV consumer organization and hospital-based HIV clinic.
Participants
Volunteer sample of persons with HIV.
Interventions
The disease-specific HIV Living Will, the generic Centre for Bioethics Living Will, or both.
Measurements and main results
Of 101 participants who received both advance directives, 78 (77.2%) preferred the disease-specific HIV Living Will and 23 (22.8%) preferred the generic Centre for Bioethics Living Will (p<.001). Most participants who preferred the HIV Living Will did so because it was more specific or relevant to their situation.
Conclusions
Persons living with HIV prefer a disease-specific to a generic advance directive. They should be offered a disease-specific advance directive. Our findings should also encourage investigators to develop and evaluate disease-specific advance directives in other clinical settings.
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References
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Authors and Affiliations
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Supported by a grant from the Physicians’ Services Incorporated Foundation of Ontario and by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario. Dr. Singer is Sun Life Chair in Bioethics at the University of Toronto; he is also supported by the National Health Research and Development Program through a National Health Research Scholar award. Dr. Naylor is a Career Scientist of the Ontario Ministry of Health (02377).
The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the supporting groups.
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Singer, P.A., Thiel, E.C., Salit, I. et al. The HIV-specific advance directive. J GEN INTERN MED 12, 729–735 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.1997.07157.x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.1997.07157.x