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December 12, 2017

Advance Directives for Dementia: Meeting a Unique Challenge

Author Affiliations
  • 1University of Washington, Seattle
  • 2Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle
  • 3Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence, University of Washington, Seattle
JAMA. 2017;318(22):2175-2176. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.16473

In the coming years, an increasing number of people will experience dementia. Worldwide, the number of people living with dementia is projected to increase from 47 million in 2015 to 132 million by 2050.1 Family members and clinicians are often unsure whether the care they provide for such patients is the care that patients would have chosen. Across the care spectrum, including skilled nursing facilities, hospital wards, intensive care units, and outpatient clinics, family members and clinicians commonly encounter this dilemma.

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