Palliative Medicine, 2019 33(6) p.607-617
Turner, Victoria; Flemming, Kate
Existing quantitative evidence suggests that at a population level, socioeconomic factors affect access to preferred place of death. However, the influence of individual and contextual socioeconomic factors on preferred place of death in the UK are less well understood. The authors conclude that the main factor affecting access to preferred place of death was social support; people with fewer informal carers were less likely to die in their preferred location. Other key findings included fluidity around the concept of home and variability in preferred place of death itself. They suggest there needs to be more widespread discussion and documentation of preferred place of death while also recognising these preferences may change as death nears or in times of crisis.