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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Can home care maintain an acceptable quality of life for patients with terminal cancer and their relatives? | | Author(s) | John Hinton |
| Journal title | Palliative Medicine, vol 8, 1994 |
| Pages | pp 183-196 |
| Keywords | Cancer ; Home nursing ; Terminal care ; The Family ; Quality of life. |
| Annotation | A study of 77 cancer patients and their relatives found that 90% of their care was at home, 29% died at home, but 30% were finally admitted for one to three days, and 41% for longer. In the final eight weeks, tolerable physical symptoms were volunteered by a mean of 63% of patients each week, and psychological symptoms by 17%. Some distress was felt by 11% of patients; this was usually from pain, depression, dyspnoea, anxiety or weakness, and generally did not persist. Relatives suffered grief, strain or their own ill health. Patients' and relatives' reports generally matched, except for strain on carers. Various proportions of patients coped by optimism, fighting their disease, partial suppression or denial, but 50% reached positive acceptance. Relatives were more aware and accepting. Home treatment was usually praised; but realistic preference for home care fell steadily from 100% to 54% of patients and 45% of relatives. At follow-up, most relatives approved of where patients had received care and died. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-010606214 A |
| Classmark | CK: N4: LV: SJ: F:59 * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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