Relatives Used in Research Unwillingly

Nearly one-third of family members who thought their elderly relatives would not want to be used for research allowed their doctors to include them in a research study anyway, according to physicians at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The study, published in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine, questions the adequacy of safeguards to protect the rights of mentally incompetent nursing home patients.

The physicians were uncertain why the family members seemed to disregard their relative’s wishes. “One possibility is that . . . (they) simply did not consider what the patient’s judgment might have been in this situation,” they wrote.

In the future, family members should be asked more specific questions about their relative’s wishes to make sure that such patients are disqualified from participating, the researchers suggested.

The study of patients at two nursing homes was designed to examine the side-effects of long-term use of urinary catheters in the elderly. It was considered to place patients at minimal risk.