Table 1.

Mean (SD) Preferences for Life-Sustaining Care and Associations (Point Biserial Coefficients) with Advance Directive Responses, by Scenario

Scenario	All (n = 202) meana(SD)	Those not wanting life-sustaining care (n = 177) meana(SD)	Those wanting life-sustaining care (n = 25) meana(SD)	Point biserial correlation coefficientb
Shortness of breath	2.44 (1.46)	2.28 (1.49)	3.49 (0.64)	0.272
Moderately severe stroke/arm and leg paralyzed	1.64 (1.60)	1.47 (1.54)	2.88 (1.53)	0.396
Colon cancer that has spread to the liver, no pain	1.49 (1.59)	1.29 (1.51)	2.78 (1.56)	0.307
Alzheimer's disease	1.44 (1.56)	1.25 (1.49)	2.84 (1.37)	0.337
Colon cancer that has spread to the liver, with pain	0.94 (1.44)	0.75 (1.30)	2.34 (1.68)	0.366
Severe stroke, in coma	0.55 (1.16)	0.34 (0.92)	2.04 (1.55)	0.484

^a0–4 scale: 0 = definitely do not want/1 = probably do not want/2 = unsure/3 = probably want/4 = definitely want.

^bAll were statistically significant at p < 0.0001.