Lead author Sarah Hoare, (PhD student, Cambridge Institute of Public Health) and co-authors including CLAHRC PI Dr Stephen Barclay, are pleased to announce the publication and press release of their paper ‘Do Patients Want to Die at Home? A Systematic Review of the UK Literature, Focused on Missing Preferences for Place of Death’, in PLoS ONE.
Funded by NIHR CLAHRC EoE within our Dementia, Frailty and End of Life care theme, the systematic review of 61 studies looked at UK adult preferences for place of death. They found that only when missing data was excluded was home where the majority of participants preferred to die. (Missing data included preferences that were not recorded, unclear or where a person had been unable/unwilling to give their preference). When these missing preferences were taken into consideration, it was not clear where most participants with cancer or other conditions wanted to die. In addition, patient preferences appeared to be associated with where patients were cared for. Overall, the authors argue that ‘caution should be exercised if asserting that most patients prefer to die at home’.
To read the full article, please see here.
For the press release please see the University of Cambridge Website.
Reference: Hoare S, Morris ZS, Kelly MP, Kuhn I, Barclay S (2015) Do Patients Want to Die at Home? A Systematic Review of the UK Literature, Focused on Missing Preferences for Place of Death. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0142723. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142723
