Health-services utilisation amongst older persons during the last year of life: a population-based study.

Background: Accurate population-based data regarding hospital-based care utilisation by older persons during their last year of life are important in health services planning. We investigated patterns of acute hospital-based service use at the end of life, amongst older decedents in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Methods: Data from all persons aged ≥70 years who died in the state of NSW Australia in 2007 were included.

Respiratory Failure, Noninvasive Ventilation, and Symptom Burden: An Observational Study.

Background: Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is commonly used to manage acute respiratory failure due to decompensated cardiorespiratory disease. We describe symptom burden in this population.

Measures: Fifty consecutive, consenting, English-speaking, cognitively intact patients, admitted to wards other than the intensive care unit in a tertiary teaching hospital and treated with NIV for hypercapnic respiratory failure, were recruited.

Insights from linking routinely collected data across Australian health jurisdictions: a case study of end-of-life health service use.

Objectives: The jurisdictional nature of routinely collected health data in Australia has created challenges for linking data across state/territory and federal government boundaries. This has impeded understanding of the interplay between service use across hospital and community care. Our objective was to demonstrate the value-add of cross-jurisdictional data using a case study of health service use and the factors associated with healthcare use towards the end of life.

Perspectives on advance care planning among patients recently requiring non-invasive ventilation for acute respiratory failure: A qualitative study using thematic analysis.

Background: Patients requiring non-invasive ventilation for acute-on-chronic respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart failure exacerbations may have a poor prognosis underscoring the importance of advance care planning.

Aim: We aimed to describe attitudes to, and experiences of, discussing the future among patients recently treated with non-invasive ventilation.

Design: Qualitative research using thematic analysis.

Experience of acute noninvasive ventilation-insights from 'Behind the Mask': a qualitative study.

Objective: Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is widely used in the management of acute and acute-on-chronic respiratory failure. Understanding the experiences of patients treated with NIV is critical to person-centred care. We describe the subjective experiences of individuals treated with NIV for acute hypercapnic respiratory failure.

Acute hospital-based services used by adults during the last year of life in New South Wales, Australia: a population-based retrospective cohort study.

Background: There is limited information about health care utilisation at the end of life for people in Australia. We describe acute hospital-based services utilisation during the last year of life for all adults (aged 18+ years) who died in a 12-month period in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales (NSW).

Methods: Linked administrative health data were analysed for all adults who died in NSW in 2007 (the most recent year for which cause of death information was available for linkage for this study).

Retrospective studies of end-of-life resource utilization and costs in cancer care using health administrative data: a systematic review.

Background: There has been an increase in observational studies using health administrative data to examine the nature, quality, and costs of care at life's end, particularly in cancer care.

Aim: To synthesize retrospective observational studies on resource utilization and/or costs at the end of life in cancer patients. We also examine the methods and outcomes of studies assessing the quality of end-of-life care.

Acute hospital-based services utilisation during the last year of life in New South Wales, Australia: methods for a population-based study.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to describe healthcare utilisation in the last year of life for people in Australia, to help inform health services planning. The methods and datasets that are being used are described in this paper.

Design/setting: Linked, routinely collected administrative health data are being analysed for all people who died in New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state, in 2007.

Specialist respiratory physicians' attitudes to and practice of advance care planning in COPD. A pilot study.

Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is increasingly recognised as important in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Specialist respiratory physicians (RPs) are crucial in enabling ACP in patients with COPD. Accordingly, understanding their practice and attitudes regarding ACP is important.

The use of non-invasive ventilation for the relief of dyspnoea in exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; a systematic review.

Background And Objective: Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) improves outcomes in patients with acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD); however, the efficacy in relieving dyspnoea is uncertain. The objective of this systematic review was to identify, synthesize and interpret the data regarding the relief of dyspnoea afforded by NIV in patients admitted with acute respiratory failure occurring during AECOPD.

Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing usual medical care (UMC) to UMC plus NIV and reporting dyspnoea as a patient-reported outcome were identified by searching relevant databases and manual searching.

Caregiving near the end of life: unmet needs and potential solutions.

Objective: A key aspect of the role of clinicians caring for patients in the setting of advanced illness focuses on attending to the needs of informal caregivers during the end-of-life period. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to complement and enrich existing quantitative findings regarding caregiver burden near the end of life, and (2) to identify potential solutions to caregivers' unmet needs in an effort to assist clinicians in the development of clinical interventions.

Methods: This qualitative study, using focus groups and content analysis of transcripts, was conducted in a comprehensive cancer center in Washington, DC.

Care for the caregivers: a review of self-report instruments developed to measure the burden, needs, and quality of life of informal caregivers.

Significant demands are being placed on the informal caregivers of chronically ill patients, including those suffering from cancer. Health care professionals need to be aware of these demands, and they need effective tools to assess the impact these demands place on the caregivers. Over the past 25 years, researchers have developed self-report instruments to assess informal caregivers.