THE PREVALENCE OF ADVANCE CARE DIRECTIVES FOR LATINOS WITH CANCER IN EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Abstract

An advance directive is a document containing a patient’s wishes for care during their end of life. These documents are important in protecting the patients autonomy when they are unable to make their own healthcare decisions, as well as providing stress relief for families and surrogate decision-makers. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, no matter their age or ethnicity, they may face their end of life decisions rather quickly. For this reason, physicians caring for these patients must provide adequate advance care planning opportunities. Cancer has been proven to be the number one cause of death among Latinos, meaning end of life care planning for these individuals is extremely important. Statistically, Latino American adults have a significantly low rate of advance directive utilization when compared to their white American counterparts. The purpose of this study is to explore factors that influence the prevalence of advance directives in Latinos with serious medical illness in Eastern North Carolina.