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We know little about the stability of end-of-life treatment preferences among community-dwelling older adults. In a longitudinal cohort study, researchers asked 818 physicians to state their preferences for end-of-life treatment in 1999 and 3 years later. Participants (Johns Hopkins University graduates, classes of 1948–1964) were provided with this scenario: They had experienced “irreversible brain damage that left them unable to speak understandably or to recognize people” and “had no terminal illness and might remain in this brain-injured state for a long time.”
Participants (mean age, 69; 92% white men) were clustered according to level of life-sustaining care preferred in 1999 — most aggressive, intermediate, and least aggressive. The p…