The Effects of Integrated Palliative Care on Patients with COPD and their Informal Caregivers

Chronic pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Even though COPD is a common chronic disease, patients that suffer from this disease do not receive palliative care as often as patients with other diseases. Therefore, the aim of this study was to broaden knowledge about the effectiveness of palliative care interventions for patients with COPD and their informal caregivers. This study focused on the effect of an integrated palliative care intervention on quality of life and spiritual wellbeing of the patient and the satisfaction with care of their informal caregiver. The eight participating hospital regions in the Netherlands were randomly allocated to the intervention or control condition by an independent statistician. Patients in the control condition (N = 97) received care as usual and patients in the intervention condition (N = 89) received integrated palliative care implemented by trained health professionals. The patients and their informal...Show moreChronic pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Even though COPD is a common chronic disease, patients that suffer from this disease do not receive palliative care as often as patients with other diseases. Therefore, the aim of this study was to broaden knowledge about the effectiveness of palliative care interventions for patients with COPD and their informal caregivers. This study focused on the effect of an integrated palliative care intervention on quality of life and spiritual wellbeing of the patient and the satisfaction with care of their informal caregiver. The eight participating hospital regions in the Netherlands were randomly allocated to the intervention or control condition by an independent statistician. Patients in the control condition (N = 97) received care as usual and patients in the intervention condition (N = 89) received integrated palliative care implemented by trained health professionals. The patients and their informal caregivers filled in questionnaires at multiple moments; baseline, three months after inclusion and six months after inclusion. Based on earlier research we hypothesized that the quality of life and spiritual wellbeing of the patients in the intervention group would improve over time. With respect to the informal caregivers, we hypothesized that their satisfaction with the hospital care and the care of the general practitioner would improve over time for the intervention group. Linear mixed model analysis was used to compare the control and intervention group over time. Results did not show an effect of the intervention on quality of life, spiritual wellbeing, and satisfaction with care over time. However, findings of this paper do contribute to a broadening of the knowledge about the effects of palliative care interventions for patients with COPD. This is important, as palliative care for patients with COPD is not as well studied as palliative care for other patient groups. Further research on palliative care for patients with COPD is recommended.Show less

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The Effects of Integrated Palliative Care on Patients with COPD and their Informal Caregivers