Age-Related Differences in Care Preferences, Treatment Decisions, and Clinical Outcomes of Seriously Ill Hospitalized Adults: Lessons from SUPPORT

Although older patients preferred less aggressive care than younger patients, many older patients wanted cardiopulmonary resuscitation and care focused on life extension. Patients� families and healthcare providers underestimated older patients’ desire for aggressive care. After adjustment for illness severity, comorbidity, baseline function, and patients’ preferences for aggressive care, older age was associated with lower hospital costs and resource intensity and higher rates of decisions to withhold life-sustaining treatments. In adjusted analyses, older age was associated with a slight survival disadvantage. This survival disadvantage persisted, even after adjustment for aggressiveness of care, suggesting that the relation between age and survival is not accounted for by less aggressive treatment of older patients.