Marjolein Matthys, Kenneth Chambaere, Kim Beernaert, Joachim Cohen, Leen Van Brussel, Benedicte Deforche, Bert Quintiens, Luc Deliens, Naomi Dhollander
{"title":"What does the general public know about palliative care? A population-based survey.","authors":"Marjolein Matthys, Kenneth Chambaere, Kim Beernaert, Joachim Cohen, Leen Van Brussel, Benedicte Deforche, Bert Quintiens, Luc Deliens, Naomi Dhollander","doi":"10.1136/spcare-2023-004384","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>The need for public education on palliative care has been widely argued for. To develop effective educational strategies, a stronger evidence base is needed on what exactly is known and unknown about palliative care as well as what the differences are between subgroups.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a cross-sectional population-based survey. Mail questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 4400 citizens (aged ≥16 years) within 4 municipalities in Flanders, Belgium. The Palliative Care Knowledge Scale (PaCKS) was used to measure knowledge. Associations between knowledge and sociodemographics and various experiential factors were tested, as well as the congruence between actual and self-perceived knowledge scores.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Response was obtained from 2008 (45.6%) citizens. The mean PaCKS score was 7.87 (SD 3.41; range 0-13) with the highest proportion (84.7%) correctly answering that palliative care is not specifically for older adults and the lowest (32.1%) correctly answering that improving the ability to participate in daily life is a palliative care goal. Being aged between 30 and 59, non-religious, more highly educated, having professional healthcare experience and knowing palliative care through personal experience were significantly associated with higher knowledge, while sex and informal caregiving experience were not. 52.4% self-perceived their knowledge as lower than it actually was.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>While the general public seems to be familiar with some basic concepts of palliative care, several key aspects remain unknown. Educational strategies, with suggested potential for community-based and experience-based approaches, may need to focus specifically on these aspects and not just on the broader palliative care concept.</p>","PeriodicalId":9136,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care","volume":" ","pages":"335-344"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1136/spcare-2023-004384","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: The need for public education on palliative care has been widely argued for. To develop effective educational strategies, a stronger evidence base is needed on what exactly is known and unknown about palliative care as well as what the differences are between subgroups.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional population-based survey. Mail questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 4400 citizens (aged ≥16 years) within 4 municipalities in Flanders, Belgium. The Palliative Care Knowledge Scale (PaCKS) was used to measure knowledge. Associations between knowledge and sociodemographics and various experiential factors were tested, as well as the congruence between actual and self-perceived knowledge scores.
Results: Response was obtained from 2008 (45.6%) citizens. The mean PaCKS score was 7.87 (SD 3.41; range 0-13) with the highest proportion (84.7%) correctly answering that palliative care is not specifically for older adults and the lowest (32.1%) correctly answering that improving the ability to participate in daily life is a palliative care goal. Being aged between 30 and 59, non-religious, more highly educated, having professional healthcare experience and knowing palliative care through personal experience were significantly associated with higher knowledge, while sex and informal caregiving experience were not. 52.4% self-perceived their knowledge as lower than it actually was.
Conclusions: While the general public seems to be familiar with some basic concepts of palliative care, several key aspects remain unknown. Educational strategies, with suggested potential for community-based and experience-based approaches, may need to focus specifically on these aspects and not just on the broader palliative care concept.
期刊介绍:
Published quarterly in print and continuously online, BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care aims to connect many disciplines and specialties throughout the world by providing high quality, clinically relevant research, reviews, comment, information and news of international importance.
We hold an inclusive view of supportive and palliative care research and we are able to call on expertise to critique the whole range of methodologies within the subject, including those working in transitional research, clinical trials, epidemiology, behavioural sciences, ethics and health service research. Articles with relevance to clinical practice and clinical service development will be considered for publication.
In an international context, many different categories of clinician and healthcare workers do clinical work associated with palliative medicine, specialist or generalist palliative care, supportive care, psychosocial-oncology and end of life care. We wish to engage many specialties, not only those traditionally associated with supportive and palliative care. We hope to extend the readership to doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers and researchers in medical and surgical specialties, including but not limited to cardiology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, paediatrics, primary care, psychiatry, psychology, renal medicine, respiratory medicine.