CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Factors affecting physicians' decisions on caring for an incompetent elderly patient: an international study.
To determine what treatment decisions physicians will make when faced with a hypothetical incompetent elderly patient with life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding and to examine the relative importance of physician characteristics and factors (legal and ethical concerns, hospital costs, level of dementia, patient's age, physician's religion, patient's wishes and family's wishes) in making those decisions. ⋯ The importance that the physicians placed on the level of dementia was the strongest predictor of the level of care that would be provided. A societal consensus on the influence of cognitive function on the appropriate level of care as well as training of physicians in ethical issues are required.