Family Perspectives on Aggressive Cancer Care Near the End of Life.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Patients with advanced-stage cancer are receiving increasingly aggressive medical care near death, despite growing concerns that this reflects poor-quality care.

Objective

To assess the association of aggressive end-of-life care with bereaved family members' perceptions of the quality of end-of-life care and patients' goal attainment.

Design, setting, and participants

Interviews with 1146 family members of Medicare patients with advanced-stage lung or colorectal cancer in the Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance study (a multiregional, prospective, observational study) who died by the end of 2011 (median, 144.5 days after death; interquartile range, 85.0-551.0 days).

Exposures

Claims-based quality measures of aggressive end-of-life care (ie

SUBMITTER: Wright AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4919118 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature