University of California San Francisco

End-of-Life Experiences / Cultural Attitudes Impact on Patient Perspectives

End-of-Life Experiences / Cultural Attitudes Impact on Patient Perspectives

Alexander Smith, MD, MPH is broadly interested in issues at the intersection of geriatrics and palliative care, his research has largely been organized around three primary areas: end-of-life experiences, patient-doctor communication, and cultural attitudes toward care. In a series of studies examining nationally representative group of older adults who died, Dr. Smith demonstrated that: (1) pain due to arthritis is under-recognized in the last years of life; (2) lengths of stay in nursing homes for patients who die are shorter than generally appreciated (median 5 months, average 14 months); and (3) emergency departments and skilled nursing facilities are common sites of care in the last months of life and should be a focus of efforts to improve the quality of palliative care. Dr. Smith has a strong interest in understanding how cultural factors influence the perspectives and experiences of patients with serious illness or disability and their families. For example, in a recent study, Dr. Smith found that two-thirds of Chinese American, African American, Latino, and white elders with disability would want to be told their prognosis if they had less than 5 years left to live. He therefore argues that clinicians should offer to discuss prognosis with their very elderly patients, because it both allows for more informed medical decision making and because many patients want to know so they can prepare for the future.