Methods: The descriptive and correlative design will be used. 80 PWMCI who were diagnosed as mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia with CDR 0.5 or 1.0 were recruited. Standard questionnaires were used to face to face interview.
Results: have lower awareness of symptoms and treatment regarding end-stage dementia. 96.4%,96.4%,79.5%,86.7%,72.0% respectively of them never have heard or unknown “Patient Autonomy Act”, “Advance Directive for Palliative Care”, “Advance Directive for Health Care Agents”,” Advance Directive for Do Not Resuscitation (DNR)”. PWMCI who have signed advance directive for palliative care, health care agents, and DNR were 8.4%, 1.2%, .9%. PWMCI believe that family members (76.3%) should be more involved in their end-of-life care decisions than themselves (50%). 74.1% of PWMCI did not discuss the future care with their family members. 22.9% had discussed it, but there was no written any record. Only 2.4% had discussions and written records. It is possible to sign “Advance Directive for Palliative Care”, “Advance Directive for Health Care Agents” and intent to “ACP” in the future, which are 56.3%, 50.1% and 41.2% respectively. The factors of significantly associated with intention to sign “Advance Directive for Palliative Care” were awareness of symptoms and treatment regarding end-stage dementia (r=0.26, P =0.022), being informed dementia diagnosis (r=0.31, P =0.011), age (r=-0.29, P =0.010), educational levels (r=0.24, P =0.033), cognitive function (r=0.29, P =0.021). The factor of significantly associated with intention to sign “Advance Directive for Health Care Agents” was awareness of symptoms and treatment regarding end-stage dementia (r=0.27, P =0.018). The factor of significantly associated with intention to ACP was educational levels (r=0.30, P =0.015).
Conclusion: PWMCI’s decision regarding end of life care tend to depend on their family members. They also are insufficient awareness of existing ACP and advance directives. Future interventions should be designed to promote awareness of dementia disease progression and ACP for PWMCI and their family members.