A survey on awareness and attitude towards living wills among community-dwelling elderly in Taiyuan city / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the awareness and attitude towards living wills among community-dwelling elderly in Taiyuan.Methods:A total of 540 residents aged 60 years or older were selected from six communities of Taiyuan city for face-to-face questionnaire survey from November 2018 to March 2019. Chi-square test and logistic regression model were used to analyze the influencing factors for awareness and attitude towards living wills.Results:The awareness rate of living wills in responders was 44.1%(226/513); and the awareness was significantly associated with age (χ 2=11.09, P=0.001), education level (χ 2=7.95, P=0.005), and daily living abilities (χ 2=8.10, P=0.017) of the residents. After the knowledge popularization, 49.9%(256/513) of responders were willing to sign the living order documents. The multivariate logistics analysis showed that residents with age of 60-74 years ( OR=2.151, 95% CI:1.380-2.941), with bachelor degree or above ( OR=3.048, 95% CI:1.571-5.913), with severely impaired activities of daily living ( OR=2.849, 95% CI:1.223-6.638), with multimorbidity ( OR=1.654, 95% CI:1.138-2.404), and with knowledge of living will ( OR=1.596, 95% CI:1.098-2.322) were more likely to sign a living will document. Conclusion:The awareness and acceptance of living wills among the community-dwelling elderly in Taiyuan city is not so high, and it is necessary to further strengthen the promotion of living wills in the city.