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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Jan 20.
Published in final edited form as: Gerontologist. 2008 Dec;48(6):811–819. doi: 10.1093/geront/48.6.811

Table 3.

MLR of Accuracy of Spousal Surrogates on Spouse’s End-of-Life Planning: Cognitive Impairment Scenario

Model 1
Model 2
Overtreatment
Don’t Know (vs Accurate)
Undertreatment
Overtreatment
Don’t Know (vs Accurate)
Undertreatment
OR 95% CI OR 95% CI OR 95% CI OR 95% CI OR 95% CI OR 95% CI
Had discussion with surrogate 0.94 0.63–1.40 0.57*** 0.43–0.78 1.01 0.64–1.59 0.91 0.61–1.37 0.56*** 0.42–0.76 1.01 0.64–1.60
Had discussion with other 1.06 0.65–1.72 0.52*** 0.35–0.76 0.86 0.49–1.52 0.99 0.60–1.63 0.50*** 0.33–0.73 0.82 0.46–1.46
Surrogate is DPAHC 0.76 0.45–1.30 0.75 0.49–1.15 0.94 0.50–1.76 0.81 0.47–1.39 0.77 0.50–1.18 0.92 0.49–1.72
Other is DPAHC 0.66 0.38–1.15 0.82 0.54–1.23 1.41 0.77–2.59 0.68 0.38–1.20 0.81 0.53–1.23 1.34 0.73–2.46
Gave surrogate living will 0.79 0.45–1.38 0.74 0.47–1.15 0.77 0.41–1.46 0.81 0.46–1.42 0.75 0.48–1.17 0.79 0.42–1.49
Gave other living will 0.76 0.45–1.28 0.89 0.60–1.32 0.56 0.30–1.04 0.77 0.45–1.33 0.92 0.62–1.37 0.57 0.31–1.07

Notes: MLR = multinomial logistic regression; N = 2,636. DPAHC = durable power of attorney for health care; OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval.

Model 2 controls for surrogate gender, educational attainment, religious affiliation, projection of spouse life expectancy, death avoidance, experience with the death of a parent or spouse, and spouse life-threatening illness. Values for Models 1 and 2 are as follows: overtreatment, don’t know, and undertreatment, n = 171, 301, and 134, respectively. For Model 1, χ2 = 61.52, df = 18; for Model 2, χ2 = 129.08, df = 54.

*

p ≤ .05

**

p ≤ .01

***

p ≤ .001.