Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2016
Preferences regarding disclosure of prognosis and end-of-life care: A survey of cancer patients with advanced disease in a lower-middle-income country.
Cancer patients' preferences regarding disclosure of prognosis and end-of-life care remain under-reported from low- and middle-income countries where cancer poses an increasing demand on scarce healthcare resources. A better knowledge of these preferences can help in achievement of shared treatment goals. ⋯ A majority of adult cancer patients surveyed in this study wanted a truthful disclosure about their disease prognosis and expressed a preference for hospital-based care at end-of-life. Healthcare providers should find ways to tailor prognostic information to patients' expressed information needs.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2016
ReviewGender and family caregiving at the end-of-life in the context of old age: A systematic review.
As societies age and governments attempt to manage within constrained health budgets by moving care into community settings, women will be called upon to provide more palliative care in old age. However, little is known about gendered disparities for caregivers of people over the age of 65 years. ⋯ Palliative family caregiving for older adults is gendered. Gender affects why people care and the consequences of providing care. Palliative care literature needs to incorporate a greater gender focus for future research and policy makers need to be aware of the gendered ramifications of providing more palliative care in the community.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2016
Perspectives of people with mild intellectual disabilities on care relationships at the end of life: A group interview study.
Care relationships are crucial in tailoring the end-of-life care of a person with intellectual disabilities (ID) to their needs. Yet, almost all studies on end-of-life care for people with ID have been conducted among caregivers. The views of people with ID about care relationships at the end of life have not been a specific focus of research. ⋯ The views of people with mild ID highlight the high demands which end-of-life care imposes on relational qualities of caregivers. This study shows the added value and potential of involving people with ID in studies on end-of-life care.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2016
Comparative StudyIntegrating palliative care across settings: A retrospective cohort study of a hospice home care programme for cancer patients.
Terminally ill patients at the end-of-life do transit between care settings due to their complex care needs. Problems of care fragmentation could result in poor quality of care. ⋯ Our results demonstrated that by integrating services between acute care and home hospice care, a reduction in acute care service usage could occur.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2016
'The ICECAP-SCM tells you more about what I'm going through': A think-aloud study measuring quality of life among patients receiving supportive and palliative care.
The ICECAP-Supportive Care Measure is a self-complete questionnaire developed to aid economic evaluation of supportive care interventions. ⋯ The ICECAP-Supportive Care Measure is feasible to use and perceived as appropriate for evaluating palliative care interventions. Healthcare professionals with limited knowledge of the patient who act as proxy completers may find the measure difficult to complete.