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Home-Based Hospice Care Improves Longevity of Terminally Ill

by Reshma Anand on Mar 28 2016 3:25 PM

Many cancer patients prefer to spend their last days in a hospital than in familiar comforts of their home fearing a lack of proper medical treatment at home.

Home-Based Hospice Care Improves Longevity of Terminally Ill
Though many people with advanced cancer prefer to stay in hospitals for getting better treatments, a new study reveals that patients who get home-based end pf life care live longer than patients who remain in hospitals.
A Japanese study published in the journal Cancer has suggested that patients can choose home-based palliative care instead of hospital-based one as it tends to improve their lifespan despite lack of medical treatment.

Researchers looked at 2069 patients, comprising 1582 patients receiving hospital-based palliative care and 487 receiving home-based palliative care. They found that the median survival time was 13 days at home while it was nine days in the hospital. Also, the prognosis was found to be 36 months for people living in a home and for those in a hospital it was 29 months.

"The cancer patient and family tend to be concerned that the quality of medical treatment provided at home will be inferior to that given in a hospital and that survival might be shortened; however, our finding--that home death does not actually have a negative influence on the survival of cancer patients at all, and rather may have a positive influence--could suggest that the patient and family can choose the place of death in terms of their preference and values," said lead author Dr. Jun Hamano, University of Tsukuba in Japan.

"Patients, families, and clinicians should be reassured that good home hospice care does not shorten patient life, and even may achieve longer survival," he added.

Source-Medindia


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