Do older adults with Alzheimer's disease engage in estate planning and advance care planning preparation?

ABSTRACT

Objectives: This study investigated the estate planning and advance care planning (ACP) of older adults diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) for the presence of (1) a valid will, (2) a durable power of attorney for health care, and (3) a living will.

Method: We analyzed 10,273 adults aged 65 and older from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) using multilevel logistic regression.

Results: We found that a diagnosis of AD was significantly associated with the ACP variables. Older adults with AD were more likely to assign a durable power of attorney for health care and have a written living will than older adults without an AD diagnosis. However, we found no significant association between a diagnosis of AD and having a valid will. These findings were robust when adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic variables. Other factors decreased engagement in estate planning and ACP, including lower socioeconomic status, being male, and being a minority.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a diagnosis of AD is associated with more engagement in ACP for individuals and their families, but important barriers exist for people with fewer resources.

KEYWORDS:

• Alzheimer's disease
• estate planning
• advance care planning (ACP)

Acknowledgments

Parts of these findings were presented at the 2017 American Council on Consumer Interests Conference.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Research Grants Committee at the University of Alabama, award number RGC-2015-33. The project described was supported by award number P30AG031054 from the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Aging or the National Institutes of Health.