Table 1.
Participant characteristics
| Characteristics | Details | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | Mean 53.2 years | SD 11.6 years | |||
| Gender | Female 83% | Male 17% | |||
| Highest level of education | High School or GED 24% | Some college or technical school 41% | Collegegraduate 11% | Graduate or professional school 24% | |
| Religion | Protestant or other Christian 88% | Other 6% | No formal religion 6% | ||
| Spiritual strength | Not very strong 0% | Somewhat strong 17% | Moderatelystrong0% | Very strong 83% | |
| Marital status | Never married 22% | Married 39% | Divorced or legally separated 33% | ||
| Employment status | Retired 11% | Employed part-time 6% | Employed full-time 72% | Not currently employed 6% | Other 5% |
| Pre-knowledge of advance directive | Almost nothing 17% | A little 50% | A fair amount 28% | A lot 5% | |
| Prior advance directive or living will | Yes 11% | No 89% | |||
| Prior formal assignment of spokesperson | Yes 0% | No 100% | |||
| Own a computer? | Yes 94% | No 6% | |||
| Weekly computer use | Mean 20.0 hours | SD 17.6 hours | |||
| I feel comfortable using a computer | Strongly agree 56% | Agree 33% | Neither agree nor disagree 5% | Disagree 6% | Strongly disagree 0% |
| Using a computer makes me nervous | Strongly agree 0% | Agree 6% | Neither agree nor disagree 17% | Disagree 21% 21% | Strongly disagree 56% |
| I feel confident in my ability to use a computer. | Strongly agree 56% | Agree 28% | Neither agree nor disagree 11% | Disagree 5% | Strongly disagree 0% |
| Overall quality of life (l=poor 7=excellent) | Mean 6.2 | SD 0.8 | |||
| General health status | Excellent 6% | Very Good 67% | Good 27% | Fair 0% | Poor 0% |