Majority of those in residential care have advance directives

(HealthDay)—More than three-quarters of those living in residential care facilities have an advance directive, according to a QuickStats report published in the July 20 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Jessica Penn Lendon, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues used data from the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (2016) to assess the percentage of residential care community residents with an advance directive and examine geographic differences.

The researchers found that overall, 77.9 percent of residents in residential care communities had an advance directive documented in their files. Geographically, by Census division, the highest percentage of residents who had an advance directive were located in the Mountain division (87.8 percent), followed by residents in East North Central (83.7 percent), New England (80 percent), West North Central (78.9 percent), Pacific (77.6 percent), South Atlantic (77.4 percent), East South Central (76.4 percent), Middle Atlantic (68.8 percent), and West South Central (64.9 percent).