How informed can consent be? New light on comprehension among elderly people making decisions about enteral tube feeding.

Elderly people in long-term care facilities do not understand much about various medical procedures, including enteral feeding. After presentation of empirically precise information about enteral tube feeding, residents in both long-term care and community-dwelling groups showed significant improvement in their understanding. The community-dwelling group showed even greater improvement. For both, comprehension was negatively related to age and depression scores, but positively related to IQ, reading comprehension, social support, and mental status. The MMSE proved the best predictor of comprehension. Implications of the results are discussed.