Differing needs for Advance Care Planning in the Veterans Health Administration: use of latent class analysis to identify subgroups to enhance Advance Care Planning via Group Visits for veterans

Table 1 Demographics and class membership based on prior ACP knowledge for veterans enrolled in VHA who participated in ACP-GV during the federal FY of 2018–2022 (N = 26,857)

Demographics of Veterans Attending ACP-GV in FY 18–22		Total number of ACP-GV participants		Class 1: Higher Prior ACP Knowledge		Class 2: Lower Prior ACP Knowledge		P value
		N = 26, 857^a		n = 10,952^b		n = 12,068^b
Age, mean ± SD		59.29 ± 14.66		61.55 ± 14.10		57.34 ± 14.84		< 0.0001
Marital Status	Divorced	7,328	29.09%	2,877	26.70%	3,515	29.62%	< 0.0001
	Married	12,686	50.36%	5,597	51.94%	5,109	43.06%
	Not married	5,177	20.55%	1,838	17.06%	2,655	22.38%
	Separated	1,170	4.64%	464	4.31%	586	4.94%
Race *	Black or African American	7,578	30.47%	2,951	28.76%	3,443	30.71%	< 0.0001
	White or Caucasian	16,441	66.12%	6,987	68.09%	7,348	65.54%
	Other races	848	3.41%	324	3.16%	420	3.75%
Ethnicity	Not Hispanic or Latino	22,742	95.03%	9,600	95.29%	10,120	94.39%	< 0.0001
Ethnicity	Hispanic or Latino	1,190	4.97%	474	4.71%	602	5.61%
Rural/Urban	Rural	9,775	36.48%	4,105	37.53%	4,333	35.97%	< 0.0001
Rural/Urban	Urban	17,018	63.52%	6,832	62.47%	7,714	64.03%
Sex	Female	3,693	13.75%	1,513	13.81%	1,517	12.57%	< 0.0001
Sex	Male	23,164	86.25%	9,439	86.19%	10,551	87.43%
VHA Priority Group**	Priority 1–4	19,490	73.66%	8,141	75.44%	8,483	71.11%	< 0.0001
	Priority 5–6	6,094	23.03%	2,281	21.14%	3,063	25.67%
	Priority 7–8	877	3.31%	370	3.43%	384	3.22%

Note This analysis utilized VA administrative data from federal fiscal year 2018–2022, which is prior to and during the VA’s efforts to utilize more inclusive language in data collection based on the Department of Veterans Affairs Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Access (I-DEA) Action Plan September 2021 https://www.va.gov/ORMDI/docs/VA_I-DEA_Action_Plan-SIGNED.pdf
*Other races utilized for data analysis by the U.S Government include American Indian, Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander
**VHA Priority Groups are defined as: Priority 1–4 are veterans who have a VA disability; Priority 5–6 are veterans who have a 0% VA disability, VA pension, or annual income lower than VA adjusted income levels, select military service before 1988; Priority 7–8 are veterans whose income is above and below the VA income limits and geographically adjusted income limits for where they live, and agree to copayments. For more detail, see: https://www.va.gov/health-care/eligibility/priority-groups/. ^aThe sample size 26,857 represents the total number of veterans enrolled in VHA who participated in ACP-GV during federal FY 2018–2022;^b Not everyone responded to each question; therefore, those with missing observations were not included in the latent class analysis. The sample sizes for Class 1 and 2 were 10,952 and 12,068, respectively, which does not sum to the total sample of 26,857

ISSN: 1472-6939