Religion and end of life treatment preferences among geriatric patients

Aims. The purpose of this study was to determine if religious preference an d religiosity influenced choosing end of life treatments in medically ill g eriatric patients. Methods. The sample consisted of 374 males 60 years of age or older, hospit alized on the acute medical service at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medic al Center. Choices for end of life treatment preferences were CPR, medical ventilation, tube feeding and IV fluids within six different illness scenar ios. Patients indicated how often they attended religious services, how muc h strength and comfort they got from religion and how religious they would describe themselves. Analyses of variance were performed using as the depen dent variables the summation scores across the six scenarios of a willingne ss to undergo each of the four life saving procedures. The religious prefer ence, race and religiosity scores served as the independent variables. Results. Only tube feeding showed a significant (p<0.05) relationship, with Catholics less willing to undergo this procedure than other Christians. Th e same trend was found for the other life saving procedures, but was not st atistically significant. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.