Resuscitation preferences of older acutely admitted medical and mentally competent patients with one and six months follow-up

Aim: Determining patients' cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) preferences in the emergency department (ED) is common practice but the stability of these preferences and their recollection by patients has been questioned. Therefore, this study assessed the stability and recall of CPR preferences of older patients at and following ED discharge.

Methods: This survey-based cohort study was conducted between February and September 2020 at three EDs in Denmark. It consecutively asked mentally competent patients aged 65 years or older who were admitted to hospital through the ED and then one and six months later "In your current state of health, do you wish that physicians should try to intervene if your heart stops beating?" Possible responses were confined to "definitely yes", "definitely no", "uncertain", and "prefer not to answer".

Results: In total, 3688 patients admitted to hospital via the ED patients were screened, 1766 were eligible and 491 (27.8%) were included: median age was 76 (IQR 71-82) years, and 257 (52.3%) were men. One third of patients who expressed definite yes or no preferences in ED had changed their preference at one month follow-up. Only 90 (27.4%) and 94 (35.7%) patients recalled their preferences at one and six months follow-up, respectively.

Conclusion and relevance: In this study, one-in-three older ED patients who initially expressed definite resuscitation preferences had changed their minds at one month follow-up. Preferences were more stable at six months but only a minority were able to recall their preferences.