Résumé :
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[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST 2VVR0xDO. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. In view of the current social dilemmas regarding the use of life-sustaining treatments (LST) at the end of life, the purpose of the study was to reveal sources of interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict among the most involved parties, in a society where open doctor-patient communication about end-of-life treatment is rare. Two comparative analyses were conducted : (a) between physicians'practice and elderly persons'preferences regarding the use of different life-sustaining treatments in different illness conditions, and (b) between physicians'hypothetical practice for an elderly person in a metastatic cancer condition, elderly persons'preferences and physicians'preferences for themselves, should they be in the same illness condition. Data were collected in Israel from 339 physicians working in two medical centers, and from a random sample of 987 elderly persons. Attitudes and practice regarding artificial tube feeding, mechanical ventilation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in three different illness conditions were evaluated by close-ended questions. The findings indicate disagreements between the elderly and the physicians on a number of issues : in general, physicians report that they would use more LST than what the elderly report that they would want. Physicians differentiate among different illness conditions and different LST more than elderly persons do. (...)
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