Advance Care Planning by Unmarried Women of Different Sexual Orientations: The Importance of Social Support

Abstract

We examined social support as a facilitator of advance care planning in unmarried women of different sexual orientations. Survey participants consisted of 215 women, 90 who reported a preference for partnering with women (WPW) and 125 for partnering with men (WPM). Our findings indicate that the association between social support and advance care planning was mixed. Specifically, social support had no significant impact on executing a will for either WPW or WPM. Among WPW, naming a health-care proxy was associated with reporting a partner who provided social support. For WPM, having a partner for social support was not associated with naming a health-care proxy. These insights help in the understanding of women's advance care planning.

Keywords:

• advance care planning
• social support
• marital status
• homosexuality
• female

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Financial support for this study has been provided by the National Cancer Institute, K07-CA87070 and Lesbian Health Fund, to Melissa A. Clark, PhD. We also wish to thank Gene Armstrong, BA, and Frances Saadeh, BA, for their help in conducting the study as well as the participants who took the time to participate in this study.