ArticlePloS one2014
Actual and preferred place of death of home-dwelling patients in four European countries: making sense of quality indicators.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Unequal ends: A systematic review comparing place of death in rural, coastal and urban areas for older people with dementia to cancer.Palliative medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Levels and Determinants of Place-Of-Death Congruence in Palliative Patients: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- The determinants of home and nursing home death: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC palliative care · 2016Pooled it
- End-of-life planning with frail patients attending general practice: an exploratory prospective cross-sectional study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2016Trial
- INSPIRE (INvestigating Social and PractIcal suppoRts at the End of life): Pilot randomised trial of a community social and practical support intervention for adults with life-limiting illness.BMC palliative care · 2015Trial
- Training general practitioners in early identification and anticipatory palliative care planning: a randomized controlled trial.BMC family practice · 2015Trial
- Disparities in hospice enrollment timing and end-of-life care intensity across non-cancer diagnoses: a 10-year hospital-based cohort study.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- End-of-life dementia: demographic, clinical as well as direct health care cost differences in nursing homes vs. ordinary housing.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Hospice Referral Rate Disparities of American Indian/Alaska Native Kidney Transplant Recipients with End-Stage Kidney Disease: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis.The American journal of hospice & palliative care · 2026Article
- Public understanding of palliative care and preferences for place of end-of-life care and death: A national population-based latent class analysis.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Article
- How do the oldest old die in very fast ageing territories? The case of overseas France.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- "He needs to die in the hospital": A caregiver's distress call.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Disparities in end-of-life care and place of death in people with malignant brain tumors-A Swedish registry study.Neuro-oncology practice · 2025Article
- Informal Caregiver Burden in Palliative Care and the Role of the Family Doctor: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Unveiling End-of-Life Disparities in Chronic Rheumatic Heart Disease: A 22-Year Analysis of the CDC-WONDER Database.Cureus · 2024Article
- Registry study of cardiovascular death in Sweden 2013-2019: Home as place of death and specialized palliative care are the preserve of a minority.International journal of cardiology. Cardiovascular risk and prevention · 2024Article
- Social, health and lifestyle-related determinants of older adults' preferences for place of death in South Tyrol, Italy - a cross-sectional survey study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Predicting place of death of patients with advanced cancer receiving home-based palliative care services in Iran.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- General practitioners and palliative care practices: a better knowledge of specific services is still needed.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Community Preferences for the Care of Older People at the End of Life: How Important is the Disease Context?The patient · 2024Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDying at home and dying at the preferred place of death are advocated to be desirable outcomes of palliative care. More insight is needed in their usefulness as quality indicators. Our objective is to describe whether "the percentage of patients dying at home" and "the percentage of patients who died in their place of preference" are feasible and informative quality indicators. METHODS AND
findingsA mortality follow-back study was conducted, based on data recorded by representative GP networks regarding home-dwelling patients who died non-suddenly in Belgium (n = 1036), The Netherlands (n = 512), Italy (n = 1639) or Spain (n = 565). "The percentage of patients dying at home" ranged between 35.3% (Belgium) and 50.6% (The Netherlands) in the four countries, while "the percentage of patients dying at their preferred place of death" ranged between 67.8% (Italy) and 86.0% (Spain). Both indicators were strongly associated with palliative care provision by the GP (odds ratios of 1.55-13.23 and 2.30-6.63, respectively). The quality indicator concerning the preferred place of death offers a broader view than the indicator concerning home deaths, as it takes into account all preferences met in all locations. However, GPs did not know the preferences for place of death in 39.6% (The Netherlands) to 70.3% (Italy), whereas the actual place of death was known in almost all cases.
conclusionGPs know their patients' actual place of death, making the percentage of home deaths a feasible indicator for collection by GPs. However, patients' preferred place of death was often unknown to the GP. We therefore recommend using information from relatives as long as information from GPs on the preferred place of death is lacking. Timely communication about the place where patients want to be cared for at the end of life remains a challenge for GPs.
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