BACKGROUND: Decisions during medical crisis made by the more-abled family member. More often than not, it is the adult son or daughter who makes it. As such, it creates stress and anxiety in the family who will be left behind.With Advance Care Planning (ACP), symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression are reduced for both the patients and their families.
OBJECTIVE: To describe and examine the awareness, preferences and attitudes of in-patients aged 40-59 years old in Rivera Medical Center, Inc. towards advance care planning through the Advance Care Planning Questions (ACPQ).
METHODS: Descriptive,correlational, cross-sectional study design was used. Necessary permissions were obtained. The modified questionnaire underwent validity prior to the actual application. Coding was done in Microsoft Excel while the statistical analyses were made using SPSS.
RESULTS: The ACPQ Cebuano version has good reliability (Cronbach's a=0.71-0.92). Participants were 49 years old (±5.5), mostly female (62%), married (74%), Cebuano/Visayan (82%), at high school level (48%), Christian of Catholic (98%), regular employees (42%), earning less than Php 10,000 a month (36%), living with their spouse and children (66%), having hypertension (44%) or diabetes mellitus (22%), and in "good" health despite the current hospitalization (60%). Majority have limited awareness of ACP (14-22%) but were willing to discuss and learn about ACP (70%). Awareness, attitudes and preferences towards ACP can be greatly influenced by the doctors.
CONCLUSION: Limited public understanding and awareness cause the negative reception and slow progress of ACP in the Philippines. The unconscious fear of death accounts for the unease and hesitance whenever the topic on death surfaces, impeding acceptance of ACP. The doctor, being the preferred decision-maker, should therefore be competent enough to help the family understand and cause a positive attitude towards ACP.