Trial reportPloS one2013
Palliative care service use in four European countries: a cross-national retrospective study via representative networks of general practitioners.
Trial report in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quality indicators for integrating oncology and home palliative care in Japan: modified Delphi study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Pooled it
- The effectiveness of out-of-hours palliative care telephone advice lines: A rapid systematic review.Palliative medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Timely short-term specialized palliative care service intervention for older people with frailty and their family carers in primary care: Development and modelling of the frailty+ intervention using theory of change.Palliative medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Palliative care interventions in intensive care unit patients.Intensive care medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Evaluation of a Palliative Care Program for Nursing Homes in 7 Countries: The PACE Cluster-Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA internal medicine · 2020Trial
- Article
- What do physicians want at the end? An international qualitative study on physicians' personal end-of-life preferences and what influences them.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
- What knowledge and skills are needed for community volunteers to take on a signposting role in community-based palliative care? A qualitative study.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
- General practitioners and palliative care practices: a better knowledge of specific services is still needed.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- A refined ICD-10 diagnoses-based approach for retrospective analysis of potential palliative care need and coverage in claims data of deceased.SAGE open medicine · 2024Article
- Building bridges of excellence: a comprehensive competence framework for nurses in hospice and palliative care-a mixed method study.BMC palliative care · 2023Article
- The adult and pediatric palliative care: differences and shared issues.Journal of anesthesia, analgesia and critical care · 2023Review
- Development of a national health policy logic model to accelerate the integration of oncology and palliative care: a nationwide Delphi survey in Japan.International journal of clinical oncology · 2022Article
- Integrating home palliative care in oncology: a qualitative study to identify barriers and facilitators.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2022Article
- Derivation and performance of an end-of-life practice score aimed at interpreting worldwide treatment-limiting decisions in the critically ill.Critical care (London, England) · 2022Observational
- Evaluating quality of care at the end of life and setting best practice performance standards: a population-based observational study using linked routinely collected administrative databases.BMC palliative care · 2022Observational
- "The system is well intentioned, but complicated and fallible" interviews with caregivers and decision makers about palliative care in Canada.BMC palliative care · 2021Article
- Earlier initiation of palliative care in the disease trajectory of people living with dementia: a scoping review protocol.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Trends and Disparities in Palliative Care Encounters in Acute Heart Failure Admissions; Insight From National Inpatient Sample.Cardiovascular revascularization medicine : including molecular interventions · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDue to a rising number of deaths from cancer and other chronic diseases a growing number of people experience complex symptoms and require palliative care towards the end of life. However, population-based data on the number of people receiving palliative care in Europe are scarce. The objective of this study is to examine, in four European countries, the number of people receiving palliative care in the last three months of life and the factors associated with receiving palliative care.
methodsCross-national retrospective study. Over two years (2009-2010), GPs belonging to representative epidemiological surveillance networks in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain registered weekly all deaths of patients (≥ 18 years) in their practices and the care they received in the last three months of life using a standardized form. Sudden deaths were excluded.
resultsWe studied 4,466 deaths. GPs perceived to have delivered palliative care to 50% of patients in Belgium, 55% in Italy, 62% in the Netherlands, and 65% in Spain (p<.001). Palliative care specialists attended to 29% of patients in the Netherlands, 39% in Italy, 45% in Spain, and 47% in Belgium (p<.001). Specialist palliative care lasted a median (inter-quartile range) of 15 (23) days in Belgium to 30 (70) days in Italy (p<.001). Cancer patients were more likely than non-cancer patients to receive palliative care in all countries as were younger patients in Italy and Spain with regard to specialist palliative care.
conclusionsAlthough palliative care is established in the countries studied, there are considerable differences in its provision. Two potentially underserved groups emerge non-cancer patients in all countries and older people in Italy and Spain. Future research should examine how differences in palliative care use relate to both patient characteristics and existing national health care policies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.