Korean J Med Ethics.  2008 Jun;11(1):23-36.

An Analysis of Attitudes toward Advance Directives among Judicial Apprentices and Medical Trainees

• SHIN YT
• LEE IH
• KIM SH
• LEE HI

Abstract

Background
The legal and ethical issues related to advance directives have recently become controversial in Korea. This study was designed to determine whether there are any significant differences between judicial apprentices and medical trainees (including residents and interns) with respect to their attitudes toward advance directives.
Methods
A questionnaire was administered to 283 judicial apprentices from May 29 to June 9, 2006, and to 254 medical trainees (150 residents and 104 interns) from May 1 to July 31, 2006. Thus, there were a total of 537 respondents in this study.
Results
More medical trainees than judicial apprentices were familiar with advance directives (P < 0.05). More medical trainees than judicial apprentices claimed that a law for advance directives was necessary (P < 0.05). After adjusting for other predisposing factors, differences between the two groups were still statistically significant (P = 0.038). After adjusting other predisposing factors, it is found that the group which knew about advance directives beforehand responded more positively to the question whether legislation for advance directives was necessary than the group which didn't(P=0.000).
Conclusion
In this study, the difference in the number of medical trainees versus judicial apprentices who were familiar with advance directives was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). This caused statistically significant differences between the number of judicial apprentices versus medical trainees who believed that a law covering advance directives is needed. Therefore, greater awareness of advance directives is needed in order to establish a law governing them.

Keyword

Advance directives; Judicial apprentices; Medical trainees