Palliative Care Awareness Among Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers in Singapore.

Introduction: We investigated the awareness of palliative care (PC) services in advanced cancer patients and their family caregivers and whether negative perceptions was a possible barrier to PC utilisation in Singapore.

Materials And Methods: Patients with stage 4 solid cancer and their caregivers were interviewed between July 2016 and March 2018 at outpatient clinics located in the medical oncology departments of 2 major public hospitals in Singapore. Patients and caregivers were asked whether they were aware of PC services, how they first learned about them, who first recommended PC to the patient, whether the patient had received PC, and reasons for not receiving PC.

Awareness and Attitudes of Community-Dwelling Individuals in Singapore towards Participating in Advance Care Planning.

Introduction: Advance care planning (ACP) is an important aspect of end-of-life care that has been shown to improve patient autonomy in decision-making and reduce stress for surviving family members. Given the rapidly ageing population in Singapore, a greater emphasis on end-of-life care planning is needed. This study therefore sought to examine the awareness and attitudes of the general Singaporean community towards participating in ACP, which are not known hitherto.