Palliative care among heart failure patients in primary care: a comparison to cancer patients using English family practice data.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Patients with heart failure have a significant symptom burden and other palliative care needs often over a longer period than patients with cancer. It is acknowledged that this need may be unmet but by how much has not been quantified in primary care data at the population level.

Methods

This was the first use of Clinical Practice Research Datalink, the world's largest primary care database to explore recognition of the need for palliative care. Heart failure and cancer patients who had died in 2009 aged 18 or over and had at least one year of primary care records were identified. A palliative approach to care among patients with heart failure was compared to that among patients with cancer using entry onto a palliative care register as a marker for a palliative

SUBMITTER: Gadoud A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4244094 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature