Racial and Ethnic Differences in Informal and Formal Advance Care Planning Among U.S. Older Adults.

Objective: To examine advance care planning (ACP) trends among an increasingly diverse aging population, we compared informal and formal ACP use by race/ethnicity among U.S. older adults (≤65 years).

Methods: We used Health and Retirement Study data (2012-2018) to assess relationships between race/ethnicity and ACP type (i.e., no ACP, informal ACP only, formal ACP only, or both ACP types). We reported adjusted risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals.

Results: Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic respondents were 1.77 (1.60, 1.96) and 1.76 (1.55, 1.99) times as likely, respectively, to report no ACP compared to non-Hispanic White respondents. Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic respondents were 0.74 (0.71, 0.78) and 0.74 (0.69, 0.80) times as likely, respectively, to report using both ACP types as non-Hispanic White respondents.

Discussion: Racial/ethnic differences in ACP persist after controlling for a variety of barriers to and facilitators of ACP which may contribute to disparities in end-of-life care.