Randomized Control Trial of Advance Care Planning in Primary Care

Chronic Illness Clinical Trial

Official title:

A Randomized Control Trial of an Advance Care Planning Intervention to Engaged Substitute Decision-makers in Primary Care

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03239639
• Other study ID #: 3714
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 1, 2018
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: January 2019
• Source: McMaster University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Sometimes people with health conditions become ill suddenly and can no longer speak for themselves and another person (such as a family member) will make health care decisions for them. This means it is important to think about your wishes and tell others about them. This is called advance care planning. When people have done advance care planning, if they become very sick and cannot speak for themselves they are more likely to get the kind of health care they want and it is easier for the people who make decisions for them. There are tools such as brochures, questionnaires, and videos that can help people learn about these things. This research is being to done to study whether using tools for advance care planning and goals of care discussions will improve how patients and their substitute decision makers do advance care planning. This study is a randomized trial. This means half of the people in this study will meet with someone at their family practice to talk about advance care planning and review some tools and half will get usual care (a Speak Up workbook). The study will 1) evaluate if reviewing the tools, and having help to complete them, helps patients and their substitute decision maker do advance care planning 2) if this intervention will encourage patients to talk to their family doctor about these issues.

Description:

In prospective and randomized trials, advance care planning (ACP) significantly improves outcomes including increased likelihood that clinicians and families understand and comply with a patient's wishes, reduces hospitalization at the end of life, results in less intensive treatments at the end of life (according to patients' wishes) and increases use of hospice services. Trials have not been done in primary care. In this project, we aim to determine the efficacy of a care pathway designed to increase the quality and quantity of ACP in patients and their substitute decision-makers in primary care. The study is a multi-site, patient-based, unblinded, randomized trial conducted in family practices in Canada. Participants will be patients who are determined by their physician to be able to benefit from ACP, and the patient's substitute decision-maker. Participant pairs will be randomized to immediate intervention (care pathway) or delayed (8-12 weeks). The intervention is guided use of tools and decision aids to clarify values and preferences for treatments in the event of serious illness or near end of life. The outcomes will be substitute decision-maker engagement in ACP (including self-efficacy for enacting the role), patient engagement in ACP, and decisional conflict.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 61
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 65 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients being treated for serious illness in outpatient settings or;

• Patients who could benefit from advance care planning self-assessed or assessed by their physician

• Patient able and willing to identify a substitute decision-maker who will participate in the study

• Patient cognitively able to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient or their substitute decision-maker does not speak English

• Patient unable to identify a substitute decision-maker who will consent to participation

• Patient does not consent to participation

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Chronic Disease
• Chronic Illness

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Advance care planning education session
Administration of values clarification tool, elicitation of preference for treatment options, if preference for resuscitation, shown an educational video about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, summary document of values and preferences created by a facilitator to share with doctor

Other:
• Wait list control
No intervention

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	Dundas Family Health Team	Dundas	Ontario
Canada	Michael West Doctor Office	Dundas	Ontario
Canada	Burlington Family Health Team	Hamilton	Ontario
Canada	Juravinski Cancer Centre Pain and Symptom Management Team	Hamilton	Ontario
Canada	McMaster Family Health Team	Hamilton	Ontario
Canada	McMaster University Medical Centre	Hamilton	Ontario
Canada	St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton	Hamilton	Ontario

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
McMaster University	Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Queen's University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

References & Publications (20)

Cook D, Rocker G, Marshall J, Sjokvist P, Dodek P, Griffith L, Freitag A, Varon J, Bradley C, Levy M, Finfer S, Hamielec C, McMullin J, Weaver B, Walter S, Guyatt G; Level of Care Study Investigators and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group. Withdrawal — View Citation

De Vleminck A, Houttekier D, Pardon K, Deschepper R, Van Audenhove C, Vander Stichele R, Deliens L. Barriers and facilitators for general practitioners to engage in advance care planning: a systematic review. Scand J Prim Health Care. 2013 Dec;31(4):215-2 — View Citation

Detering KM, Hancock AD, Reade MC, Silvester W. The impact of advance care planning on end of life care in elderly patients: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2010 Mar 23;340:c1345. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c1345. — View Citation

Ehlenbach WJ, Barnato AE, Curtis JR, Kreuter W, Koepsell TD, Deyo RA, Stapleton RD. Epidemiologic study of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the elderly. N Engl J Med. 2009 Jul 2;361(1):22-31. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa0810245. — View Citation

Fried TR, Redding CA, Robbins ML, O'Leary JR, Iannone L. Agreement between older persons and their surrogate decision-makers regarding participation in advance care planning. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011 Jun;59(6):1105-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03412.x. — View Citation

Gruneir A, Mor V, Weitzen S, Truchil R, Teno J, Roy J. Where people die: a multilevel approach to understanding influences on site of death in America. Med Care Res Rev. 2007 Aug;64(4):351-78. Review. — View Citation

Hammes BJ, Rooney BL. Death and end-of-life planning in one midwestern community. Arch Intern Med. 1998 Feb 23;158(4):383-90. — View Citation

Heyland DK, Barwich D, Pichora D, Dodek P, Lamontagne F, You JJ, Tayler C, Porterfield P, Sinuff T, Simon J; ACCEPT (Advance Care Planning Evaluation in Elderly Patients) Study Team; Canadian Researchers at the End of Life Network (CARENET). Failure to en — View Citation

Heyland DK, Ilan R, Jiang X, You JJ, Dodek P. The prevalence of medical error related to end-of-life communication in Canadian hospitals: results of a multicentre observational study. BMJ Qual Saf. 2016 Sep;25(9):671-9. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004567. Epu — View Citation

Heyland DK, Lavery JV, Tranmer JE, Shortt SE, Taylor SJ. Dying in Canada: is it an institutionalized, technologically supported experience? J Palliat Care. 2000 Oct;16 Suppl:S10-6. — View Citation

Houben CHM, Spruit MA, Groenen MTJ, Wouters EFM, Janssen DJA. Efficacy of advance care planning: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2014 Jul;15(7):477-489. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2014.01.008. Epub 2014 Mar 2. Review. — View Citation

Howard M, Bernard C, Tan A, Slaven M, Klein D, Heyland DK. Advance care planning: Let's start sooner. Can Fam Physician. 2015 Aug;61(8):663-5. — View Citation

Raymont V, Bingley W, Buchanan A, David AS, Hayward P, Wessely S, Hotopf M. Prevalence of mental incapacity in medical inpatients and associated risk factors: cross-sectional study. Lancet. 2004 Oct 16-22;364(9443):1421-7. — View Citation

Rhee JJ, Zwar NA, Kemp LA. Advance care planning and interpersonal relationships: a two-way street. Fam Pract. 2013 Apr;30(2):219-26. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cms063. Epub 2012 Oct 1. — View Citation

Robinson C, Kolesar S, Boyko M, Berkowitz J, Calam B, Collins M. Awareness of do-not-resuscitate orders: what do patients know and want? Can Fam Physician. 2012 Apr;58(4):e229-33. — View Citation

Silveira MJ, Kim SY, Langa KM. Advance directives and outcomes of surrogate decision making before death. N Engl J Med. 2010 Apr 1;362(13):1211-8. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa0907901. — View Citation

Sudore RL, Lum HD, You JJ, Hanson LC, Meier DE, Pantilat SZ, Matlock DD, Rietjens JAC, Korfage IJ, Ritchie CS, Kutner JS, Teno JM, Thomas J, McMahan RD, Heyland DK. Defining Advance Care Planning for Adults: A Consensus Definition From a Multidisciplinary — View Citation

Teixeira AA, Hanvey L, Tayler C, Barwich D, Baxter S, Heyland DK; Canadian Researchers at End of Life Network (CARENET). What do Canadians think of advanced care planning? Findings from an online opinion poll. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2015 Mar;5(1):40-7. — View Citation

Teno JM, Fisher ES, Hamel MB, Coppola K, Dawson NV. Medical care inconsistent with patients' treatment goals: association with 1-year Medicare resource use and survival. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2002 Mar;50(3):496-500. — View Citation

You JJ, Dodek P, Lamontagne F, Downar J, Sinuff T, Jiang X, Day AG, Heyland DK; ACCEPT Study Team and the Canadian Researchers at the End of Life Network (CARENET). What really matters in end-of-life discussions? Perspectives of patients in hospital with — View Citation

* Note: There are 20 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Advance care planning engagement of substitute decision-maker	A survey of the substitute decision-maker's engagement in advance care planning	8 to 12 weeks (6 weeks for patients from cancer centre)
Secondary	Advance care planning engagement of patient	A survey of the patient's engagement in advance care planning	8 to 12 weeks (6 weeks for patients from cancer centre)
Secondary	Substitute decision-maker self-efficacy survey	A survey of the substitute decision-maker's confidence to make future decisions	8 to 12 weeks (6 weeks for patients from cancer centre)
Secondary	Decisional conflict	A modified short decisional conflict survey	immediately after intervention
Secondary	Satisfaction with intervention	A satisfaction and endorsement survey on the process of the educational intervention	immediately after intervention

External Links

•   Bagshaw SM, Stelfox HT, McDermid RC, Rolfson DB, Tsuyuki RT, Baig N, et al. Association between frailty and short- and long-term outcomes among critically ill patients: a multicentre prospective cohort study. CMAJ. 2014 Feb 4 186(2):E95-102
•   Johnston SC, Pfeifer MP, McNutt R. The discussion about advance directives. Patient and physician opinions regarding when and how it should be conducted. End of Life Study Group. Arch Intern Med. 1995 May 22;155(10):1025-30
•   Metzger M, Song M-K, Ward S, Chang PP-Y, Hanson LC, Lin F-C. A randomized controlled pilot trial to improve advance care planning for LVAD patients and their surrogates. Hear Lung J Acute Crit Care. 2016 May;45(3):186-92
•   Rhee JJ, Zwar NA, Kemp LA. Advance care planning and interpersonal relationships: a two-way street. Fam Pract. 2013 Apr 1;30(2):219-26
•   Shalowitz DI, Garrett-Mayer E, Wendler D, D R, A F, KM C. The Accuracy of Surrogate Decision Makers. Arch Intern Med. American Medical Association; 2006 Mar 13;166(5):493