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Table 1 Characteristics of the study participants with and without ADs and POA for health care

From: Advance directives and power of attorney for health care in the oldest-old – results of the AgeQualiDe study

Characteristic

Study participants with and without ADs (n = 678)

Study participants with and without POA (n = 666)

Individuals with ADs (n = 486)

Individuals without ADs (n = 192)

Test values

p

Individuals with POA (n = 455)

Individuals without POA (n = 211)

Test values

p

Age

 

 Years, mean (SD)

88.6 (2.9)

88.8 (3.1)

t = 0.652

0.676

88.6 (2.9)

88.8 (3.0)

t = 0.717

0.474

Gender; n (%)

 

 Female

327 (67.3)

126 (65.6)

χ2 = 0.171

0.679

308 (67.7)

137 (64.9)

χ2 = 0.496

0.481

 Male

159 (32.7)

66 (43.4)

147 (32.3)

74 (65.1)

Educationa; n (%)

 

 Low

251 (51.6)

121 (63.0)

χ2 = 7.194

0.027

239 (52.5)

125 (59.2)

χ2 = 2.686

0.261

 Medium

163 (33.5)

49 (25.5)

149 (32.7)

58 (27.5)

 High

72 (14.8)

22 (11.5)

67 (14.7)

28 (13.3)

Family status; n (%)

 

 Single

33 (6.8)

12 (6.2)

χ2 = 2.893

0.408

27 (5.9)

17 (8.1)

χ2 = 1.814

0.612

 Married

123 (25.3)

46 (24.0)

116 (25.5)

49 (23.2)

 Divorced

26 (5.3)

5 (2.6)

20 (4.4)

12 (5.7)

 Widowed

304 (62.6)

129 (67.2)

292 (64.2)

133 (63.0)

Living situation; n (%)

 

 Private household, alone

246 (50.6)

110 (57.3)

χ2 = 3.692

0.158

224 (49.2)

124 (58.8)

χ2 = 8.032

0.018

 Private household, with others (partner, relative, etc.)

153 (31.5)

58 (30.2)

146 (32.1)

64 (30.3)

 Assisted living/nursing home/retirement home

87 (17.9)

24 (12.5)

85 (18.7)

23 (10.9)

Subjective Cognitive Decline; n (%)

 

 Yes

301 (61.9)

118 (61.5)

χ2 = 0.047

0.977

276 (60.7)

131 (62.1)

χ2 = 0.132

0.936

MMSEb,c

 

 Score, mean (SD)

28.1 (1.8)

27.6 (1.9)

t = −3.045

0.002

28.1 (1.7)

27.6 (1.9)

t = −3.506

0.001

Self-rated healthd,e

 

 EQ VAS score, mean (SD)

62.1 (18.9)

63.3 (18.6)

t = 0.737

0.461

62.5 (19.0)

62.0 (18.3)

t = −0.286

0.775

Depressionf,g; n (%)

 

 Yes

73 (15.1)

24 (12.5)

χ2 = 0.746

0.388

63 (13.9)

31 (14.7)

χ2 = 0.037

0.787

Frailtyh

 CSHA CFS score; mean (SD)

3.8 (1.4)

3.8 (1.4)

U = 46,378.500

0.902

3.8 (1.4)

3.8 (1.3)

U = 47,419.000

0.796

Basic ADLi,j

 Barthel Index score; mean (SD)

92.6 (12.9)

93.2 (12.2)

U = 45,808.500

0.714

92.8 (13.1)

92.2 (12.7)

U = 45,469.500

0.286

Instrumental ADLk

 

 IADL score; mean (SD)

6.2 (1.9)

6.3 (1.9)

U = 44,498.500

0.333

6.2 (1.9)

6.3 (1.9)

U = 46,996.000

0.653

  1. AD advance directives, ADL activitities of daily living, CSHA CFS Canadian Study of Health and Aging Clinical Frailty Scale, EQ VAS EQ visual analogue scale, IADL instrumental activities of daily living, MMSE Mini-Mental-State Examination, POA power of attorney, U Mann-Whitney U
  2. aaccording to the new CASMIN educational classification [21]
  3. bmissing data for n = 14 (2.1%) participants in the analysis for ADs and n = 13 (2.0%) in the analysis for POA
  4. cThe higher the MMSE score, the better the cognition [18]
  5. dmissing data for n = 8 (1.2%) participants in the analysis for ADs and n = 8 (1.2%) in the analysis for POA
  6. eThe higher the EQ VAS score, the better the self-rated health [27, 28]
  7. fmissing data for n = 2 (0.3%) participants in the analysis for ADs n = 2 (0.3%) in the analysis for POA
  8. ga score ≥ 6 on the Geriatric Depression Scale [25, 26]
  9. hThe higher the CSHA CFS score, the stronger the frailty [24]
  10. imissing data for n = 1 (0.1%) participants in the analysis for ADs and n = 2 (0.3%) in the analysis for POA
  11. jThe higher the score, the better the functioning in basic ADL [22]
  12. kThe higher the score, the better the functioning in IADL [23]
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BMC Geriatrics

ISSN: 1471-2318

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