Summarised characteristics of the included studies: part 1
| Author (year) | Publication type | Geographical location of study | Type of care provided | Research aim | Study design | Study population and sample size | Results regarding status and demand of palliative and hospice day-care |
| Anonymous (2010)37 | Newspaper article | USA | Adult day-care and hospice | Describe the advantages and challenges of collaborating services and extract relevant information for implementation. | Qualitative interviews. | Stakeholders and programme leaders of adult day services and hospices (n=N/A). | Status: where collaborations exist, education programmes for hospice staff about adult day-care (and vice versa) are being held. Demand for more staff education regarding referral criteria, symptom and pain management and bereavement. |
| Svidén et al (2009)36 | Original research article (quantitative) | Sweden | Palliative day-care | Examine palliative day-care outcomes (health-related quality of life, emotional well-being). | Prospective comparative study and structured questionnaires (Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer [EORTC] QLQ-30, MACL) analysed with descriptive statistics. | Patients from day-care group (n=31); patients from comparison group receiving palliative home care (n=17). | Status: existence of hospital-based outpatient service; staff consists mainly of nurses and occupational therapists, as well as a multiprofessional team on demand; no significant differences in outcome of palliative day-care vs comparison group. |
| Annemans et al (2020)35 | Original research article (qualitative) | Belgium | Hospice day-care | Explore the impact of the physical environment on palliative day-care. | Observation and semistructured interviews; qualitative analysis according to the Guide of Leuven. | Individual interviews with day-care guests (n=8); three focus groups with staff, volunteers and family members (n=15). | Status: small-scale hospice offering day-care; location in the countryside; physical proximity of residential hospice to day-care hospice creates mainly positive associations among patients and caregivers. |
| Bradley et al (2011)13 | Original research article (qualitative) | UK (England) | Palliative day-care | Explore reasons for referrals to day-care. | Semistructured interviews analysed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. | Referrers (n=8), general practitioner (n=1), community-based specialist palliative care nurses (n=4), hospital-based specialist palliative care nurses (n=2), heart failure nurse (n=1). | Status: referrals for physical reasons rather than psychosocial reasons; reasons for referral: physical, social and emotional well-being, continuity of care, caregiver respite, introduction to the hospice environment. Demand for a more standardised referral process to reduce referrer bias. |
| Cochrane et al (2008)17 | Original research article (descriptive) | UK (Scotland) | Hospice day-care | Evaluate a pilot project examining day-care for people with non-malignant conditions. | Description of a pilot study and collection of quantitative data on patients to evaluate the project. | Day-care patients (n=28). | Status: multidisciplinary team; attendance on the same day each week to tighten relationships; review after 12 weeks of attendance (discharge or not); training staff about patients with non-malignant conditions. Demand for the evaluation of hospice day-care benefits for patients with non-malignant diseases. |
| Corr and Corr (1992)34 | Original research article (descriptive) | USA | Hospice day-care | Depict the idea and implementation of hospice day-care and its position within the healthcare system. | Descriptive report. | N/A. | Status: hospice day-care is a form of care between home and inpatient care that provides a variety of benefits to participants and encourages their autonomy, while giving carers a break; volunteers benefit from lacking a predefined place in the hospice hierarchy. |
| Vries et al (2012)18 | Original research article (qualitative) | UK (England) | Specialist palliative day hospice | Examine the discharge and (re)admission procedure at a specialist palliative day hospice. | Case study including semistructured interviews with patients, carers and staff and examination of documentation, thematically analysed. | Cases recruited (n=5). | Status: reasons for referral perceived as medical by healthcare professionals but social by patients/carers; patient assessment every 6 weeks by a multidisciplinary team to determine whether continued attendance is necessary; periodic discharges once goals are achieved to allow more patients to attend. Patient demand for continuous attendance instead of periodic discharge. |
| Douglas et al (2003)31 | Original research article (descriptive) | UK (England) | Palliative day-care | Analyse the cost and effect of palliative day-care attendance on other services. | Cost evaluation through the provision of budgets, qualitative interviews with staff, observations and the review of financial documents; qualitative interviews with patients on their use of health and social care. | Patients in day-care group (n=120) from n=5 palliative day-care centres; comparison group not receiving day-care (n=53). | Status: palliative day-care as a way to access specialist medical care, possibly substituting for community care. |
| Douglas et al (2000)19 | Original research article (qualitative) | UK (England) | Palliative day-care | Assess the structure, processes and tools for evaluating outcomes. | Indepth observations analysed with system analysis. | Palliative day-care centres (n=5); at each centre researchers spoke with patients (n=5–10), staff, finance director, senior nursing manager and medical director. | Status: patients receive additional community care and can access medical care through attached inpatient unit; clear referral criteria; counselling for family members; mostly funded by the voluntary sector; range of activities reflects variable patient needs; provision of a specific day for younger attendees. Demand for further research on adequate instruments to measure palliative day-care outcomes. |
| Douglas et al (2005)38 | Original research article (quantitative) | UK (England) | Palliative day-care | Identify patient preferences at a palliative day-care centre. | Choice experiment (data collected during interviews) and statistical analysis with probit analysis. | Day-care patients (n=81) from n=4 centres. | Status: full-day vs appointment-based models. Demand for full-day access and access to special therapies. |
| Fisher et al (2008)14 | Original research article (qualitative) | Australia | Palliative day-care | Explore palliative day-care experiences in Western Australia. | Semistructured interviews analysed with constant comparative analysis. | Day-care patients (n=8). | Status: palliative day-care reduces patients’ feelings of being bound socially, physically, temporally and medically. Demand for a flexible service to meet patients’ changing needs. |
MACL, Mood Adjective List; N/A, not available; QLQ-30, Quality of Life Questionnaire 30.