Table 4.

Age Group Comparisons of End-of-Life Goal Attainment (n = 327)^*

	Unadjusted descriptive statistics								Adjusted group comparisons†
Baseline variables	Total sample n = 327		Older aged (≥65) n = 104		Middle-aged (45–64) n = 175		Younger aged (20–44) n = 48		Older aged vs middle-aged		Middle-aged vs younger aged		Older aged vs younger aged
Goal Attainment	n	(%)	n	(%)	n	(%)	n	(%)	OR	CI	OR	CI	OR	CI
Successful Goal Attainment	222	(65.9)	70	(67.3)	119	(68.0)	33	(68.8)	0.76	(0.42-1.34)	1.03	(0.49-2.13)	0.84	(0.39-1.84)
Wanted and Received LPT	25	(7.4)	6	(5.8)	9	(5.1)	10	(20.8)	1.00	(0.34-2.98)	0.21	(0.08-0.54)	0.23	(0.08-0.68)
Did Not Want and Avoided LPT	197	(58.5)	64	(61.5)	110	(62.9)	23	(47.9)	0.90	(0.53-1.53)	2.38	(1.20-4.75)	1.74	(0.87-3.47)
Unsuccessful Goal Attainment	105	(31.2)	34	(32.7)	56	(32.0)	15	(31.3)	1.33	(0.74-2.36)	0.98	(0.47-2.03)	1.25	(0.58-2.70)
Wanted But Did Not Receive LPT	70	(20.8)	23	(22.1)	34	(19.4)	13	(27.1)	1.27	(0.14-0.70)	0.62	(0.29-1.31)	0.86	(0.37-2.02)
Did Not Want But Received LPT	35	(10.4)	11	(10.6)	22	(12.6)	2	(4.2)	0.82	(0.38-1.77)	3.31	(0.75-14.60)	3.29	(0.64-16.83)

GA- Goal Attainment; LPT- Life-Prolonging Treatment.

All values in bold are at least p < .05.

Goal Attainment has 4 categories: 1) patient wants and receives life-prolonging treatment 2) patient wants but does not receive life-pronging treatment 3) patient does not want but fails to avoid life-prolonging treatment 4) Patient does not want and avoids life-prolonging treatment. Patient in categories 1 & 4 were grouped as successful Goal Attainment while groups 2 &3 were grouped as unsuccessful Goal Attainment.

^*Goal Attainment sample was limited by sample size of the “Extend Life” measure of patient treatment preference (N = 327).

^†Adjustments were made by running all Table 1 variables as possible confounders using backwards selection.