Legality and age influence end of life decisions in Mexican physicians.
Rev Invest Clin
; 66(1): 59-64, 2014.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24762727
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
To test in two groups of physicians-in-training a simplified questionnaire exploring their acceptance of Physician Assisted Death (PAD), Therapy Withdrawal upon family request (WD), and Personalized PAD (PPAD) on whether the participant would seek PAD for him/herself. MATERIAL ANDMETHODS:
A 4-item questionnaire was answered by 212 residents in different stages of training and grouped as beginners (1st and 3d year internal medicine residents, n = 76) and advanced (5th to 8th year residents of different internal medicine or oncology subspecialties, n = 136). The response options to the PAD and WD questions included a conditioned yes (CYes) dealing with legalization of PAD or the existence of a patient's previous written agreement to WD.RESULTS:
Beginners had significantly more Yes plus C-Yes answers than advanced for questions regarding PAD (82 vs. 55%), WD (95 vs. 75%) and PPAD (76 vs. 56%). The importance of legal aspects implied in the conditioned answers can be seen in twofindings:
a) A sizable 29% of participants conditioned their Yes answers for both questions whereas only 9% gave an unconditioned Yes to both. b) A cross-classification of the PAD and WD answers showed that 13% of participants reversed their No in PAD to C-Yes in WD.CONCLUSIONS:
Our simplified questionnaire operated well and was able to confirm the increase in acceptance of PAD and WD by young Mexican physicians, and the need of legislation regarding end of life decisions in our country.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Practice Patterns, Physicians'
/
Attitude of Health Personnel
/
Refusal to Treat
/
Suicide, Assisted
/
Internal Medicine
/
Internship and Residency
/
Medical Oncology
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Mexico
Language:
En
Journal:
Rev Invest Clin
Journal subject:
MEDICINA
Year:
2014
Document type:
Article