Effectiveness of an Advance Care Planning Program for Older Adults in a Community: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study assessed the effectiveness of the Hanoljigi Program II, an advance care planning (ACP) intervention for older adults living alone, using a randomized controlled trial with 29 participants in the intervention group and 30 in the control group. Facilitated by home care nurses, the program aimed to foster structured ACP discussions and patient-centered decision-making. Outcome measures included knowledge of advance directives (AD), ACP engagement, and purpose in life. Both groups showed improvements in AD knowledge and ACP engagement post-intervention, but the intervention group experienced a significantly greater increase in self-efficacy within the ACP engagement subscale compared to the control group (F = 6.336, p=.015). The findings underscore the crucial role of nurses in initiating and guiding ACP discussions and confirm the effectiveness of structured interventions in enhancing self-efficacy for ACP engagement among socially vulnerable older adults.