Treatment Preferences for Life Support Among Homeless Persons
Principal Investigators: JR Curtis and WM Norris
Research Grant: Chest Foundation, July 2002 to June 2004
This study focused on examining the treatment preferences of a sample of homeless individuals. Our goals were to provide healthcare teams and ethics committees with useful information in making decisions about continuing life support in situations where recovery to independent living is unlikely. The homeless men and women who participated were approached in local area shelters. Each of these subjects completed one, short, interviewer-administered survey. Physician subjects in a comparison group, comprised of attending physicians within the University of Washington system, completed a shorter survey by mail about their resuscitation preferences. All subject data was collected anonymously.
Publications from this study include:
Norris WM, Nielsen EL, Engelberg RA, Curtis JR. Treatment preference for resuscitation and critical care among homeless persons. Chest. 2005; 127: 2180-2187.