Young adults' perspectives on advance care planning: Evaluating the Death over Dinner initiative.

ABSTRACT

We investigated how death attitudes and experience relate to perspectives on advance care planning (ACP) in young adulthood, and whether attending a Death over Dinner event affects perspectives on ACP. Participants (N = 109) were assigned to a Death over Dinner or waitlist control condition, completing pretest and post-test measures. Higher Death Rejection and having more Experience with Death predicted Reservations about ACP. Participation in a Death over Dinner decreased Reservations toward ACP compared to the control group. Death over Dinner appears to be useful in ameliorating reservations toward ACP without shortening individuals' sense of their time left to live.