Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is recommended to align treatment with patient goals, although there has been little study of the impact of ACP on in-hospital stroke treatment. Objective: To examine the association between ACP and transitions to comfort measures after stroke. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting/Subjects: Hospitalized stroke patients 45 years and older and surrogate decision makers from a population-based study in Corpus Christi, TX. Measurements: Surrogates were interviewed to assess presence of patient prestroke ACP, categorized as none, informal conversations only, or formal documentation. Patient records were reviewed for time from admission to transition to comfort measures only (CMO) (defined as in-hospital comfort measures or discharge with hospice services). Cox proportional-hazards models assessed the relationship between ACP and time to transition to CMO. Results: Of 148 included stroke patients, 37% transitioned to CMO (median time five days). For ACP, 44% had only informal conversations, 38% had formal documentation (98% of which also reported informal conversations), and 18% had neither. After adjustment for age, severity, and baseline disability, informal conversations alone (hazard ratio [HR] 3.55; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.35-9.33) and formal documentation (HR 2.85; 95% CI: 1.05-7.72) were associated with earlier transition to comfort measures compared to no ACP. There was no difference between formal documentation and informal conversations on time to comfort measures (HR 0.80, 95% CI: 0.40-1.63). Conclusions: There was no additional association of formal ACP documentation over informal conversations on time to transition to comfort measures after stroke. Further study of formal ACP is warranted.
Keywords: advance care planning; palliative care; stroke.