Advanced Care Planning for the Severely Ill Home-dwelling Elderly

This study will develop and evaluate a complex intervention to implement advance care planning for severely ill home-dwelling elderly acutely admitted to hospital, by using a cluster randomized design. Twelve Norwegian acute geriatric hospital units will participate in the main study, each as one cluster. Of the twelve clusters, half will receive implementation support and training immediately, and the other half will receive similar support after the intervention period. The study includes 1) assessment of implementation outcomes (fidelity) in the participating units,2) health service and clinical outcomes including a) questionnaires to all staff in the units before and after the implementation period, questionnaires to attending clinicians and qualitative interviews with health personnel and local unit leaders b) questionnaires to patients and their relatives, patients records and data from central health registers and qualitative interviews with patients and relatives. Furthermore we will assess barriers and facilitators for advance care planning in 1) a wider health service context, and 2) at the national, regional and municipal level, and do economic analyses.

NCT Number	NCT05681585
Lead Sponsor	University of Oslo Collaborators: Oslo Metropolitan University, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, The Research Council of Norway, Helse Sor-Ost, Sykehuset Innlandet HF, Vestre Viken Hospital Trust, Ostfold Hospital Trust, The Hospital of Vestfold, Hospital of Southern Norway Trust, University Hospital, Akershus, Oslo University Hospital, Diakonhjemmet Hospital
Conditions	Advance Care Planning
Enrollment	2,000 participants
Start Date	2023-10-18
Primary Completion	2024-12-31 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-12 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2025-04-06