Introduction
Advance care planning (ACP) enables individuals to define and record goals and preferences regarding future medical treatment and care in case of physical or mental deterioration.Although there is abundant literature on ACP, few randomised controlled trials on its effects are available. An early and comprehensive systematic review published in 2014 found 113 studies on the effectiveness of ACP, but most were observational studies and only six randomised controlled trials were included.Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an ACP program on patients’ activation regarding healthcare issues in care dependent community dwelling older people in Germany.