To assess the prevalence of advance care planning use and explore factors associated with its use among Chinese elderly residents in a private care home in Hong Kong.

Abstract: A retrospective cross-sectional review of 108 charts from a private nursing home in Hong Kong examined advance care planning (ACP) use between January 1 and December 31, 2023. The residents had a mean age of 85 years (SD = 3.05), with 65% female and 96% Chinese born in Hong Kong. Only 5.6% expressed ACP, and 3.7% had recorded advance medical directives (AD). The findings did not support the hypothesis of a significant association between AD and ACP expression. Conversely, “not having an AD” was statistically associated with “not having ACP expressed” (p < 0.001). Factors including older age, birthplace, chronic illness, education, and perceived health did not show a significant relationship. The study concludes that the prevalence of ACP and AD is low in this private nursing home. Limitations of the study and implications for ACP use in long-term care and future research were discussed. PS: The author's dataset may be made available upon reasonable request.