Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2013
Recommendations for managing missing data, attrition and response shift in palliative and end-of-life care research: part of the MORECare research method guidance on statistical issues.
Statistical analysis in palliative and end-of-life care research can be problematic due to high levels of missing data, attrition and response shift as disease progresses. ⋯ When designing studies in palliative and end-of-life care, it is recommended that high rates of attrition should not be seen as indicative of poor design and that a clear statistical analysis plan is in place to account for missing data and attrition.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2013
Review Meta Analysis'Best practice' in developing and evaluating palliative and end-of-life care services: a meta-synthesis of research methods for the MORECare project.
Improved and cost-effective palliative and end-of-life care is an international policy imperative. Developments are impeded by a weak and often inconsistent evidence base. ⋯ The complexity of delivering and evaluating palliative and end-of-life care services requires the accumulation of knowledge from multiple sources to understand the active components of an intervention to deliver patient benefit and examine the evaluation methods to detect change and reveal processes prior to a definitive trial. The implementation of evidence into practice should form a continuum throughout the evaluation stages to reveal understanding on the process of intervention delivery, the context and the intended outcome(s).
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2013
ReviewBreathlessness--current and emerging mechanisms, measurement and management: a discussion from an European Association of Palliative Care workshop.
A pre-conference workshop at the 2012 European Association of Palliative Care meeting discussed the current scientific and clinical aspects of breathlessness. ⋯ Ensuring optimal delivery of interventions for breathlessness, whose design is underpinned by improving the understanding in the aetiology and maintenance of breathlessness, is the subject of ongoing controlled clinical trials.