Publications by authors named "Vera Sarmento"
Background: Most people would prefer to die at home as opposed to hospital; therefore, understanding mortality patterns by place of death is essential for health resources allocation.
Aim: We examined trends and risk factors for hospital death in conditions needing palliative care in a country without integrated palliative care.
Design: This is a death certificate study.
Context: Discrete choice experiment (DCE) is a quantitative method that helps determine which service attributes are most valued by people and consequently improve their well-being.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to test a new DCE on home palliative care (HPC).
Methods: Cross-sectional survey using the DCE method with adult patients and their family caregivers, users of three HPC services in Portugal.
Objective: To understand patients and family caregivers' experiences with home palliative care services, in order to identify, explore and integrate the key components of care that shape the experiences of service users.
Methods: We performed a meta-ethnography of qualitative evidence following PRISMA recommendations for reporting systematic reviews. The studies were retrieved in 5 electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycInfo, BNI, CINAHL) using 3 terms and its equivalents ('Palliative', 'Home care', 'Qualitative research') combined with 'AND', complemented with other search strategies.
Background: Monitoring where people die is key to ensure that palliative care is provided in a responsive and integrated way.
Aim: To examine trends of place of death and project hospital deaths until 2030 in an ageing country without integrated palliative care.
Design: Population-based observational study of mortality with past trends analysis of place of death by gender, age and cause of death.
Introduction: In the context of a pronounced population ageing and rising mortality due to chronic illnesses, this national epidemiological study compares the places where people die with population preferences.
Material And Methods: Data on numbers of deaths in 2010 by gender, age group, region of residence NUTS II and place of death (hospital/clinic, domicile and other) of people with 16+ years old were provided by the Portuguese Statistics Institute. Data on population preferences for place of death were obtained in 2010 in the PRISMA telephone survey.
Background: Achieving home care and home death is increasingly used as an outcome measure of palliative care services.
Aim: To appraise the state of the science on dying at home.
Methods: Appraisal and narrative review developed from a plenary presentation at the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) 2012 meeting examining the research on variations and trends in place of death, factors associated with dying in the preferred place, presenting evidence on outcomes for those dying at home and suggesting future research questions.