Decisional-Regret Trajectories From End-of-Life Decision Making Through Bereavement

Context: Regret plays a central role in surrogate decision making. Research on decisional regret in family surrogates is scarce and lacks longitudinal studies to illustrate the heterogenous, dynamic evolution of decisional regret. Objectives: To identify distinct decisional-regret trajectories from end-of-life (EOL) decision making through the first two bereavement years among surrogates of cancer patients. Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, observational study was conducted on a convenience sample of 377 surrogates of terminally ill cancer patients. Decisional regret was measured by the five-item Decision Regret Scale monthly during the patient's last six months and 1, 3, 6, 13, 18, and 24 months post loss. Decisional-regret trajectories were identified using latent-class growth analysis. Results: Surrogates reported substantially high decisional regret (pre- and postloss mean [SD] as 32.20 [11.47] and 29.90 [12.47], respectively). Four decisional-regret trajectories were identified. The resilient trajectory (prevalence: 25.6%) showed a general low decisional-regret level with mild and transient perturbations around the time of patient death only. Decisional regret for the delayed-recovery trajectory (56.3%) accelerated before the patient's death and decreased slowly throughout bereavement. Surrogates in the late-emerging (10.2%) trajectory reported a low decisional-regret level before loss but their decisional regret increased gradually thereafter. The increasing-prolonged trajectory (6.9%) rapidly increased in decisional-regret levels during EOL decision making, peaked one-month post loss, then declined steadily but without a complete resolution. Conclusion: Surrogates heterogeneously suffered decisional regret from EOL decision making through bereavement as evident by four identified distinct decisional-regret trajectories. Early identification and prevention of increasing/prolonged decisional-regret trajectories is warranted.