Uncertainty is ubiquitous in healthcare, and can lead to distress and decision paralysis, potentially limiting individuals’ ability to engage with advance care planning. Understanding experiences of and preferred approaches to uncertainty is therefore prerequisite to optimal care planning.

We know that care preferences and approaches to advance care planning are culturally specific, therefore it is likely that experiences of uncertainty also vary between culture. However a recent systematic review only identified literature from North America, Europe, and Australasia, and most participants in included studies were from white backgrounds. No studies were identified from Asia.

To enable development of culturally appropriate interventions to address uncertainty in advanced illness, it is essential to identify how the experience of uncertainty varies between cultures. This project takes the first step to fill an important gap in knowledge by exploring experiences of uncertainty in multimorbidity in Taiwan and Japan.

The project involves qualitative interviews with patients with multiple serious illnesses and their informal caregivers.

Professor Yoshiyuki Kizawa (Professor, University of Tsukuba, Japan)
Dr. Asako Saji (Japan)