Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2019
Inclusion, characteristics and outcomes of people requiring palliative care in studies of non-pharmacological interventions for delirium: A systematic review.
Delirium is common, distressing, serious and under-researched in specialist palliative care settings. ⋯ Non-pharmacological delirium interventions have frequently excluded and under-characterised people requiring palliative care and infrequently reported their outcomes.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2019
Establishing key criteria to define and compare models of specialist palliative care: A mixed-methods study using qualitative interviews and Delphi survey.
Specialist palliative care services have various configurations of staff, processes and interventions, which determine how care is delivered. Currently, there is no consistent way to define and distinguish these different models of care. ⋯ In this innovative study, we derive 20 criteria to characterise and differentiate models of specialist palliative care - a major paradigm shift to enable accurate reporting and comparison in practice and research.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2019
What socio-economic factors determine place of death for people with life-limiting illness? A systematic review and appraisal of methodological rigour.
Socio-economic factors play important roles in place of death. However, up-to-date knowledge on socio-economic determinants for place of death is warranted including analysis of collinearity between socio-economic determinants. ⋯ Inequalities concerning place of death were found, and attention towards socio-economic inequality concerning place of death is necessary, especially in patients with a poor financial status, patients living in deprived and metropolitan areas and patients who are employed. Furthermore, we found a low degree of assessment for collinearity and adjustment of socio-economic variables. These issues should be considered in planning of future studies of socio-economic determinants for place of death.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2019
Which outcome domains are important in palliative care and when? An international expert consensus workshop, using the nominal group technique.
When capturing patient-level outcomes in palliative care, it is essential to identify which outcome domains are most important and focus efforts to capture these, in order to improve quality of care and minimise collection burden. ⋯ The domains of 'overall wellbeing/quality of life', 'pain', and 'information needs/preferences' are recommended for regular measurement, assessed using 'Phase of Illness'. International adoption of these recommendations will help standardise approaches to improving the quality of palliative care.