TY - JOUR
T1 - Older persons' experiences of their own decision making about their care : a systematic review of qualitative evidence protocol
AU - Sayers, Jan Maree
AU - Cotton, Antoinette
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Review question/objective: The overall objective of this systematic review is to identify and synthesize the best available qualitative evidence of how older persons go about making decisions regarding their own health care. Background: Decision making refers to a person considering a range of options pertaining to their health care and selecting from these the course of action or belief they wish to adopt. Health care decision making for older adults is influenced by a range of factors such as their right to making choices, their capacity for decision making, cultural perspectives and beliefs, financial circumstance, and access to health information and services. Older people have the right to make choices regarding their health care. Their choices relate to whether or not they will seek, accept, refuse or discontinue health care. The right to make these choices is enshrined in law. This arises from the ethical principles of autonomy and self-determination. A corollary to this principle is the requirement for health professionals to obtain informed consent for patient care. This assumes that adults have the capacity to give informed consent, that is, they understand the benefits and risks associated with the proposed care and alternate options available to them. Health care decisions requiring informed consent may include treatments, advance care planning and issues regarding end of life care. A diminished decision making capacity refers to a person’s impaired ability to make an informed choice or consent about their health care. Their capacity may be diminished due to: impaired cognition, communication, or understanding of the decision they may be making and the implications of that decision. Adults can lose their decision making capacity necessitating others to make decisions on their behalf. This is known as surrogate decision making. Commonly this may occur as people age or as a consequence of chronic illness or co-morbidities. As people age and their circumstances change, they are required to make increasingly complex decisions about their health care. Older adults experience higher rates of co-morbidities further influencing the likelihood of needing to make decisions regarding their health care. Given ageing is a risk factor for dementia, the prevalence of dementia will increase and the capacity for decision making of these adults will diminish. Decision making may also be influenced by the older persons’ personal attitudes and characteristics about assuming responsibility for their health and health care decisions, as well as their social, economic and health circumstances. Health care decision making in older adults is a global issue scantily addressed in literature. There is a paucity of research on older persons’ experiences of decision making about their care. Following a review of databases listed in the search strategy, no systematic reviews on this topic were identified. Therefore it is important to conduct a systematic review of older persons’ experiences of their decision making about their own health care. The findings from this systematic review may be used to inform health care policy makers, health care providers and health care practice, so as to best understand and support older people in their decision making about their health care.
AB - Review question/objective: The overall objective of this systematic review is to identify and synthesize the best available qualitative evidence of how older persons go about making decisions regarding their own health care. Background: Decision making refers to a person considering a range of options pertaining to their health care and selecting from these the course of action or belief they wish to adopt. Health care decision making for older adults is influenced by a range of factors such as their right to making choices, their capacity for decision making, cultural perspectives and beliefs, financial circumstance, and access to health information and services. Older people have the right to make choices regarding their health care. Their choices relate to whether or not they will seek, accept, refuse or discontinue health care. The right to make these choices is enshrined in law. This arises from the ethical principles of autonomy and self-determination. A corollary to this principle is the requirement for health professionals to obtain informed consent for patient care. This assumes that adults have the capacity to give informed consent, that is, they understand the benefits and risks associated with the proposed care and alternate options available to them. Health care decisions requiring informed consent may include treatments, advance care planning and issues regarding end of life care. A diminished decision making capacity refers to a person’s impaired ability to make an informed choice or consent about their health care. Their capacity may be diminished due to: impaired cognition, communication, or understanding of the decision they may be making and the implications of that decision. Adults can lose their decision making capacity necessitating others to make decisions on their behalf. This is known as surrogate decision making. Commonly this may occur as people age or as a consequence of chronic illness or co-morbidities. As people age and their circumstances change, they are required to make increasingly complex decisions about their health care. Older adults experience higher rates of co-morbidities further influencing the likelihood of needing to make decisions regarding their health care. Given ageing is a risk factor for dementia, the prevalence of dementia will increase and the capacity for decision making of these adults will diminish. Decision making may also be influenced by the older persons’ personal attitudes and characteristics about assuming responsibility for their health and health care decisions, as well as their social, economic and health circumstances. Health care decision making in older adults is a global issue scantily addressed in literature. There is a paucity of research on older persons’ experiences of decision making about their care. Following a review of databases listed in the search strategy, no systematic reviews on this topic were identified. Therefore it is important to conduct a systematic review of older persons’ experiences of their decision making about their own health care. The findings from this systematic review may be used to inform health care policy makers, health care providers and health care practice, so as to best understand and support older people in their decision making about their health care.
KW - decision making
KW - medical care
KW - older people
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:30172
U2 - 10.11124/jbisrir-2015-1920
DO - 10.11124/jbisrir-2015-1920
M3 - Article
SN - 2202-4433
VL - 13
SP - 3
EP - 9
JO - JBI database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports
JF - JBI database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports
IS - 5
ER -