Recently, end-of-life preference in palliative care has been gaining attention in Japan. The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare established the Japanese basic policy in November 2018. Patients’ decision-making is recommended; however, patients with dementia or other disorders cannot make such decisions by themselves. Thus, healthcare providers may contact surrogates and consider their backgrounds for better decision-making. Hence, the preferences of home caregivers’ and geriatric health service facility (GHSF) residents’ families on patient life-sustaining treatment (LST) were investigated.

This cross-sectional study involved home caregivers’ and GHSF residents’ families in Japan. We distributed 925 self-reported questionnaires comprising items, such as the number of people living together, care duration, comprehension of doctor's explanations, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 and Short Form (SF)-8, and families’ LST preference for patients.

In all, 619 valid responses were obtained [242 men and 377 women (309 in the HOME Caregivers Group, response rate = 61.1%; 310 in the GHSF Group, response rate = 74.0%)]. LST preference was significantly associated with sex, the number of people living together, care duration, and comprehension of doctors’ explanations in the HOME Caregivers Group but was not significantly associated with the GHSF Group. Furthermore, PHQ-9/SF-8 scores were not significantly associated with LST preference.

There were many differences in opinions about LST preference between home caregivers’ and GHSF residents’ families. The results suggested that the burden of nursing care was greater and harder in home caregiver families, and these factors may be related to the LST preference for a patient.