Trial Outcomes & Findings for An Effectiveness-Implementation Trial of SPIRIT in ESRD (NCT NCT03138564)

Participants were recruited from multiple dialysis centers in Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, USA. Participant enrollment began on February 15, 2018, and follow-up assessments for the primary outcome measures at Week 2 were completed on March 24, 2022. Data collection for secondary outcome measures with surrogates three months after the patient's death was completed July 29, 2022.

42 clinics were enrolled with 23 randomized to the SPIRIT and 19 randomized to usual care. One SPIRIT clinic and 2 control clinics were excluded prior to study initiation. There were 557 eligible patients in SPIRIT clinics and 264 dyads consented to participate; of these, 33 dyads withdrew or became ineligible prior to the baseline visit. In control clinics there were 293 eligible patients and 210 dyads consented to participate; 15 dyads withdrew or became ineligible prior to the baseline visit.

Unit of analysis: dialysis clinics

An Effectiveness-Implementation Trial of SPIRIT in ESRD

The Goals-of-Care Tool which includes two scenarios describing medical conditions commonly occurring in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Possible responses to the scenarios are: "The goals of care should focus on delaying my death, and thus I want to continue life-sustaining treatment", "The goals of care should focus on my comfort and peace, and thus I do not want life-sustaining treatment, including dialysis", and "I am not sure". Patients and surrogates complete this tool independently and their responses are compared to determine dyad congruence. A dyad is assigned with "1" if each member of the dyad chose the same response (either comfort care only or continue aggressive care) in both scenarios. In all other cases, the dyad is assigned with "0", which includes: 1) the patient and surrogate responses are the same in one of the two scenarios, 2) the patient and surrogate responses differ in both scenarios, and 3) the patient and surrogate responses are both "I am not sure".

Patient decisional conflict is measured using the 13-item Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS), a validated measure in the context of end-of-life decision making. Participants indicate their level of agreement with statements about their plans for their future medical care by selecting (1) Strongly Agree, (2) Agree, (3) Neither Agree nor Disagree, (4) Disagree, or (5) Strongly Disagree. The total score ranges from 13 to 65 with higher scores indicating greater difficulty in weighing benefits and burdens of life-sustaining treatments and decision making.

Surrogate decision-making confidence is measured using the 5-item Decision Making Confidence (DMC) scale. Surrogates indicate how confident they are about making medical decisions if the patient becomes unable to make their own decisions by their level of agreement with statements along a scale of (0) "Not confident at all" to (4) "Very confident". Total scores range from 0 to 20, with higher scores indicating greater confidence.

The composite outcome combines dyad congruence on Goals-of-Care scenarios and surrogate DMC scores. If the dyad congruence is 1 and the surrogate's DMC \>=3, then the composite outcome value for the dyad is "1". In all other cases, the dyad's composite outcome value is "0".

The use of intensive procedures during end-of-life treatment is identified through the United States Renal Data System (USRDS). Among participants having Medicare, admission to hospice, withdrawal of dialysis, and institutional death were documented.

The use of intensive procedures during end-of-life treatment is identified through the United States Renal Data System (USRDS). Among participants having Medicare as the primary payer, admission to the hospital, intensive care unit, or a skilled nursing facility was documented, as well as intensive procedures of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), intubation, mechanical ventilation, and feeding (gastronomy or jejunal) tube insertion.

Surrogate post-bereavement anxiety symptoms were measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) Anxiety subscale. Surrogates indicate their level of agreement with statements by selecting responses rated from 0 (the problem in the statement is not an issue) to 3 (the problem in the statement is a very big issue). Scores for the anxiety subscale range from 0 to 21 with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity. A score of 0-7 indicates "normal", 8-10 indicates "borderline abnormal", and 11-21 indicates "abnormal" levels of anxiety.

Surrogate post-bereavement symptoms of depression were measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) Depression subscale. Surrogates indicate their level of agreement with statements by selecting responses rated from 0 (the problem in the statement is not an issue) to 3 (the problem in the statement is a very big issue). Total scores of the depression subscale range from 0 to 21 with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity. A score of 0-7 indicates "normal", 8-10 indicates "borderline abnormal", and 11-21 indicates "abnormal" levels of depression.

Surrogate post-bereavement traumatic distress was measured with the Post-Traumatic Symptoms Scale-10 (PTSS-10). Surrogates indicate how often they have experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress by responding to 10 symptoms on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 = "never" and 7 = "always". Total scale scores range from 10 to 70 and higher scores indicate more intense symptoms.