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Efficacy of a Church-Based, Culturally Tailored Program to Promote Completion of Advance Directives Among Asian Americans

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Abstract

Having an Advance Directive (AD) can help to guide medical decision-making. Asian Americans (AA) are less likely than White Americans to complete an AD. This pilot study investigated the feasibility and efficacy of a church-based intervention to increase knowledge and behavior change related to AD among Chinese and Vietnamese Americans. This study utilized a single group pre- and post-intervention design with 174 participants from 4 churches. Domain assessed: demographics; AD-related knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and intentions; AD completion; and conversations with a healthcare proxy. Data were analyzed using Chi square and multiple logistic regression techniques. We observed significant increases in participants’ AD-related knowledge, intentions, and a gain in supportive beliefs and attitudes about AD, resulting in 71.8 % AD completion, and 25.0 % having had a proxy conversation. Providing culturally-tailored intervention and step-by-step guidance can help to achieve significant changes in AD related knowledge and behavior in AA church goers.

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Acknowledgments

Funding support was provided by the National Institutes of Health grant 1R21MD006024 and the Chinese Hospital Health System.

IRB Approval

The study was approved by the University of California, San Francisco Institutional Review Board and the Ethical and Independent Review Services of Corte Madera, California.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Community Health Resource Center, 728 Pacific Avenue Suite 115, San Francisco, CA, 94133, USA

    Angela Sun & Joyce Cheng

  2. Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Quynh Bui

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Janice Y. Tsoh

  4. Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Ginny Gildengorin, Ky Lai, Stephen McPhee & Tung Nguyen

  5. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Joanne Chan

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  1. Angela Sun
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Correspondence to Angela Sun.

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Sun, A., Bui, Q., Tsoh, J.Y. et al. Efficacy of a Church-Based, Culturally Tailored Program to Promote Completion of Advance Directives Among Asian Americans. J Immigrant Minority Health 19, 381–391 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0365-7

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