Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making
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Decision making at the end of life is frequently complex and often filled with uncertainty. We hypothesized that people with limited health literacy would have more uncertainty about end-of-life decision making than people with adequate literacy. We also hypothesized that video images would decrease uncertainty. ⋯ Subjects with limited health literacy expressed more uncertainty about their preferences for end-of-life care than did subjects with adequate literacy. Our video decision aid improved end-of-life decision making by decreasing uncertainty regarding subjects' preferences, especially for those with limited literacy.
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Multicenter Study
The language of prognostication in intensive care units.
Rationale. Although misunderstandings about prognosis are common in intensive care units (ICUs), little is known about how physicians actually communicate prognostic information. ⋯ There is considerable variability in the language used by physicians to disclose prognosis, with only 20% of physicians using quantitative terms. Very few physicians checked whether families understood prognostic information. These findings may provide potential targets for interventions to improve communication about prognosis in ICUs.