Comparing the quality of death for hospice and non-hospice cancer patients.
In this secondary analysis of data from the National Hospice Study (NHS), a new measure, quality of death (QOD), was developed by weighting reports of cancer patients' last 3 days of life by what patients wanted their last 3 days to be like. Using analysis of covariance, the QOD scores were higher for terminally ill patients in hospices (either home-care [HC] or hospital-based [HB]) than similar patients who received conventional care (CC). The results are discussed in terms of verification of the hospice philosophy and other uses for a quality of death measure.
Wallston
K A
KA
Health Care Research Project, School of Nursing, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240.
Burger
C
C
Smith
R A
RA
Baugher
R J
RJ
D001293:Attitude to Death; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003625:Data Collection; D006738:Hospices / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States