Background

There is growing evidence that advance care planning (ACP) can improve end-of-life care in parkinsonian disorders such as multiple system atrophy (MSA), an incurable atypical parkinsonian disorder characterised by a complex and progressive symptomology.1 ACP offers patients the opportunity to record their values and preferences for future medical care. ACP comprises the stages of thinking about values and wishes; having discussions with family, friends and healthcare professionals (HCPs); and completing formal ACP documentation.2 ACP is associated with positive outcomes such as improved quality of care.3

One barrier to increasing the uptake of ACP is the paucity of research on the proportion of patients who engage with ACP and the factors associated with its uptake.4 To address these research gaps, this study used data from the largest survey completed by patients with MSA in the UK to: (1) identify what proportion of people with MSA engage in the different stages of ACP; and (2) identify a range of factors identified in the literature and recorded in the MSA survey to test whether they are associated with the three stages of ACP.