Old Age, Life Extension, and Geriatrics

University Of California San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this 4-year qualitative anthropological study is to investigate first, how physicians, patients age 70 and over and their families make decisions regarding the use of three groups of life-extending medical procedures (cardiac bypass, angioplasty and stent; kidney and liver transplant; and renal dialysis) and how they each respond to those procedures; and second, to identify socio-cultural issues of relevance to physicians and to society regarding the growing use of life-extending medical procedures on elderly patients. This will be an empirical, ethnographic study based on the collection of data by in-depth interviews with physicians, patients and their families, and by participant-observation of support groups for cardiac and transplant patients and of physician-patient discussions where life-extending procedures are discussed. There are 4 specific aims:1) to provide a descriptive account of physician, patient, and family understandings of relationships among changing conceptions of old age, health in late life and expectations about life-extending medical care; 2) to learn how physicians in different specialties are extending the lives of their elderly patients and the values underlying their decisions; 3) to learn the structural and cultural constraints on their choices for life-extending procedures; and 4) to describe patient and family choices, knowledge and values. Coding-based qualitative data analysis will be used: cross-sectional comparison, thematic analysis, case studies, and frequencies of response. The interpretive goal is to examine in detail the social, structural and medical practices and values brought to bear on the extension of life at progressively older ages. This will be the first research that comprehensively addresses medical and lay decision-making surrounding life-extending medical procedures for older persons, and the responses and experiences of physicians, patients and families to those procedures.