Questionnaire
 
142 Seniors with an average age of 67 responded to the following questionnaire. Shown below are the number of individuals who responded and the percentage who answer yes or no to each question. ( The sum of the number of yes plus no answers is slightly less than 142 for individual questions because respondents occasionally skipped questions.)

Please answer the following questions as if:

You could know you faced a future of severe loss of memory even for the names of friends and close family members.
You get lost frequently in previously familiar places.
You cannot talk with coherence and you frequently have urinary and fecal incontinence.
You are about to be transferred to a full-service nursing home because your family can no longer take care of   you at home.

1. If you developed pneumonia or meningitis, easily cured with antibiotics, would you wish that they be given to you to prolong your life?
Yes 51 (44.0%)
No 65 (56.0%)

2. If you had advanced cancer in addition to Alzheimer's, would you accept chemotherapy or radiation treatment which might extend your life for a few months?
Yes 15 (12.7%)
No 103 (87.3%)

3. Would you choose to be fed by intestinal tube or by intravenous feeding if you couldn't swallow?
Yes 16 (13.5%)
No 102 (86.4%)

4.  Would you choose to be spoon-fed if food and liquids were put in front of you but you did not want to eat for whatever reason?
Yes 25 (21.4%)
No 92 (78.6%)

5.  Would you choose to be kept alive as long as possible provided severe pain could be controlled?
Yes 15 (13.2%)
No 99 (86.8%)

6.  Have you talked to your family about these issues?
Yes 78 (72.2%)
No 30 (27.8%)

7.  Do you have a Living Will now?
Yes 62 (60.2%)
No 41 (39.8%)

         8. Have you ever had a close friend or relative with severe dementia?
Yes 47 (40.9%)
No 68 (59.1%)

9.  Could you carry out the wishes of a close family member not to be kept alive by artificial feeding or antibiotics if he/she developed severe dementia? Please assume a living will was written several years before at a time when he/she was mentally alert and fully functional.
Yes 108 (94.7%)
No  6 (05.3%)