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Previous Volume 333:879-880 September 28, 1995 Number 13 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited Related Article by Klein, B. E.K. Related Article by Tielsch, J. M. PubMed Citation

To the Editor: Tielsch et al. (May 4 issue)¹ are to be commended for their thorough and clinically relevant research on visual impairment in nursing home residents. But why did the authors employ a cognitive examination as a screening instrument to determine whether they would approach subjects or proxies to obtain informed consent? This practice reflects the mistaken notion that the cognitively impaired cannot grant informed consent.

Decision-making capacity is at issue in informed consent, not competency.^2,3 The assessment of decision-making capacity occurs during the first two parts of an informed-consent interview: disclosure and understanding. A categorical assessment of competency . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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