Knowledge, Practice, and Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Issues among Adults in Hawaii

The Center on Aging at the University of Hawaii is currently conducting the Enhancing Care for Hawaii’s Ohana (ECHO) Project. Its purpose is to explore the mechanism to disseminate end-of-life (EOL) information to family caregivers and adults who are providing or helping older adults in Hawaii and to examine the effects of EOL information on people’s knowledge, attitudes, and practice. An analysis of baseline data revealed that a majority of participants knew about a living will (83%) and a Healthcare Power of Attorney (88%). However, slightly less than a half of the participants had completed a living will and a Healthcare Power of Attorney (HPOA). As far as attitudes toward EOL were concerned, the majority of the ECHO participants felt favorably toward discussing (89%) and planning (95%) for EOL care even if death is far in the future. Although there were differences in knowledge, attitudes and practice among different racial groups, the differences were not significant. However, as expected, the older the person, the more likely he/she had an advance directive and had made funeral and burial arrangements. © 2003 Californian Journal of Health Promotion. All rights reserved.