Influence of ethnicity, relocation, and social integration on the decision to complete an Advance Medical Directive: A survey of Boca Raton retirees

Research has shown that generally no more than 20% of populations surveyed have completed Advance Medical Directives and that there is a strong ethnic variation in their choice (i.e. Protestants and Whites were more likely to have an Advance Medical Directive than Jews, Catholics, Hispanics, or Blacks). This thesis developed and tested the hypothesis that the use of Advance Medical Directives by Jews would comparably vary inversely with their degree of social integration as measured by their degree of orthodoxy. Survey results confirmed this hypothesis, but more significantly demonstrated that for all samples tested, regardless of religion, 74% of the over-65 respondents had completed an Advance Medical Directive. It is postulated that this high rate of implementation is an effect of the lower degree of social integration of the Boca Raton retirees brought about by a physical relocation to Florida from their former family, residential, and business networks.