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. 2012 May 1;14(3):238-243.
doi: 10.1097/njh.0b013e318243920c.

Relationship among Trust in Physicians, Demographics, and End-of-life Treatment Decisions Made by African American Dementia Caregivers

Yashika J Watkins  1 , Gloria J Bonner  2 , Edward Wang  3 , Diana J Wilkie  4 , Carol E Ferrans  5 , Barbara Dancy  6
Affiliations

Relationship among Trust in Physicians, Demographics, and End-of-life Treatment Decisions Made by African American Dementia Caregivers

Yashika J Watkins et al. J Hosp Palliat Nurs. .

Abstract

Purpose: A pilot study was conducted in an urban African American community to explore the relationship between trust in physicians, demographics and end-of-life treatment decisions made by African American caregivers of family members with dementia: namely, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation and tube feeding.

Methods: In a cross-sectional design, standard measures were administered to a convenience sample of 68 African American caregivers of family members with dementia. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore associations among the variables.

Results: Those with more education exhibited higher (p = 0.035) trust in physicians than less educated individuals. Caregivers who were more trusting of their physicians were more likely to use mechanical ventilation (p = 0.0005) than were less trusting caregivers. Conversely, more trusting caregivers were less likely to use tube feeding (p = 0.022).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest relationships exist among trust in physicians, demographics and end-of-life treatment decisions. Thus, health care providers should consider African American caregivers' perceived trust in physicians when counseling about dementia and end-of-life treatment choices.

Keywords: African American; Trust in physicians; cardiopulmonary resuscitation; dementia; mechanical ventilation; tube feeding.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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