Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making
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Clinicians recognize the importance of eliciting patient preferences for life-sustaining care, yet little is known about the stability of those preferences for patients with serious disease. ⋯ Health care providers should periodically reassess preferences for life-sustaining care, particularly for patients with progressive disease, given the instability in patient preferences. However, predictors of instability may vary with how preferences are measured. In particular, changes in health status may be related to instability of preferences for certain types of treatments.