Older patients and intensive care: factors that influence patients decisions on life sustaining measures

Background

Physicians treating older patients are frequently unaware of their patients' personal attitudes towards life-sustaining measures like ventilation, resuscitation, feeding tubes, or ICU admission. In routine clinical practice, there is often little time for reflection prior to deciding in favor or against life sustaining measures in critical medical conditions. Although decisions for or against these measures should ideally be made jointly by the patient and the treating physician, factors like age, disease burden, social inclusion, and affective state may play an important role in the patient's motivation.