Identifying palliative care needs
Extending Mortality Follow-Back Study to focus on breast cancer
- Population based study
- 1,358 persons interviewed who were next of kin as identified from death certificates
- Exclusions: under 18 years; sudden, unexpected death
- 26.4% response rate - about 1 in 4 deaths in Nova Scotia
- 38% reported deaths from cancer
Breast Cancer results
- 28 breast cancer deaths were in the data set
- Younger and more highly educated
- More died at home and more specified desire to die at home
73% of those who expressed a preference
- More of these women than others knew that they didn鈥檛 have long to live
- More spoke openly about dying
- A higher percentage were offered palliative care, compared to other decedents
Next steps
For this Mortality follow back study, linked databases will soon be added to include other variables.
Discussions of how to extend the study for more breast cancer specific information is being pursued.