Evidence on the effectiveness of health literacy interventions in the EU: a systematic review.

Background: In the last decade, the attention for health literacy has increased in the European Union. This is due to three main reasons. First, reviews have shown that inadequate health literacy is associated with worse health outcomes, higher health care use and expenditure.

Palliative care for patients with cancer: do patients receive the care they consider important? A survey study.

Background: In many countries, GPs and home care nurses are involved in care for patients with advanced cancer. Given the varied and complex needs of these patients, providing satisfactory care is a major challenge for them. We therefore aimed to study which aspects of care patients, GPs and home care nurses consider important and whether patients receive these aspects.

Relatives' perceived quality of palliative care: comparisons between care settings in which patients die.

Background: Dying in the preferred setting is an indicator of good palliative care quality. Most people prefer to die at home. But does the quality of care as perceived by their relatives vary depending on the care setting that is the place of death? The aim is to compare (from the relatives perspective) whether there are perceived differences in the quality of palliative care between the settings in which people die.

Which patients die in their preferred place? A secondary analysis of questionnaire data from bereaved relatives.

Background: Previous studies on factors influencing the place of death have focused on cancer patients dying at home. However, home is not always the preferred place.

Aim: To provide insight into the extent to which patients with various diseases die in their preferred place and into factors associated with dying in the preferred place.

Differences in palliative care quality between patients with cancer, patients with organ failure and frail patients: A study based on measurements with the Consumer Quality Index Palliative Care for bereaved relatives.

Background: Palliative care is rooted in the care for incurably ill cancer patients. Yet today there is a recognised need for palliative care for patients with non-cancer conditions. However, the often unpredictable illness trajectories and the difficulty in predicting the imminence of death in people with non-cancer conditions may hamper the provision of high-quality palliative care.

The effect and process evaluations of the national quality improvement programme for palliative care: the study protocol.

Background: The nationwide integration of palliative care best practices into general care settings is challenging but important in improving the quality of palliative care. This is why the Dutch National Quality Improvement Programme for Palliative Care has recently been launched. This four-year programme consists of about 70 implementation trajectories of best practices.