Place of death has been an issue of concern in a multitude of studies and knowledge of where patients die in different countries, and for what reasons, has grown steadily in recent years.
The place in which people receive end-of-life care and eventually die has an important role to play in the pursuit of comfort, dignity and quality of life at the end of life. There is an overall preference among terminal patients and their informal caregivers for death to occur at home and there are several indications that dying at home compared with in an institution can contribute to a better death while having a potential cost-saving effect both for the patient and for society. However, 31% to 85% of cancer patients die in hospital in European countries.
It is the aim of the International Place of Death (IPD-study) Study to collect death certificate data for mortality for a full year (preferably 2008) in several countries from different continents, and merge these data into one common file, to examine and explain cross national differences and similarities in place of death in a number of specific patient groups, to examine changes in place of death between 2003 and 2008 explore what additional clinical data on deaths can be obtained.
Dr Katherine Hunt
Prof Julia Addington-Hall
Dr Joachim Cohen
Dirk Houttekier
Prof Luc Deliens
The Research foundation - Flanders (FWO)
End of life care
Place of death
Public health