Descriptive Study on the State of Advance Care Planning and Advance Directives in Latin America

• Grant number: 22/02254-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Edison Iglesias de Oliveira Vidal
• Grantee: Natália Rocha Tardelli
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FMB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Latin American countries have undergone a process of demographic and epidemiological transition that requires important changes in the standards of care for their progressively older populations and those with chronic-degenerative pathologies, for which health care models that are eminently aimed at acute conditions have been shown to be insufficient. Advance Care Planning (ACP) and Advance Directives (AD) are strategies for the promotion of care at the end of life that is consistent with the values and preferences of patients and their families. Currently, there are rare reports on the status of the ACP and AD in Latin American countries, with a lack of knowledge about how these different nations have dealt with those issues both in terms of their regulation and in the practice of health-related decision-making at the end of life. Thus, the present research aims to describe the state of the ACP and AD in Latin America, as a means to contributing both to the exchange of experiences between the countries in the region, and to fostering the development of public policies on ACP and AD in America Latin America, and improving decision-making processes on end-of-life care on this continent. We will conduct interviews with at least one palliative care professional from each of the 20 Latin American countries. We will perform descriptive analyzes of the data obtained through frequency tables and narrative comparisons of the different aspects related to ACP and AD in the participating countries.