Participants’ actual knowledge of components of the WHO definition of palliative care
| Component of WHO definition of palliative care | Participants indicating they knew this component of the WHO definition* No (weighted %) (95%) | ||
| Whole population N=1518 | Heard of palliative care N=1362 | High perceived knowledge of palliative care† (N=676) | |
| Focused on improving patients’ quality of life | 1172 (76.0) (73.7 to 78.2) | 1161 (84.8) (82.8 to 86.8) | 630 (92.9) (90.9 to 94.9) |
| For patients of any age | 1157 (74.9) (72.7 to 77.2) | 1144 (83.5) (81.4 to 85.5) | 634 (93.7) (91.8 to 95.6) |
| For patients living with any serious illness | 1111 (72.6) (70.3 to 74.9) | 1100 (81.0) (78.9 to 83.2) | 556 (84.3) (81.5 to 87.1) |
| Includes physical, emotional, spiritual and social support | 1008 (65.4) (63.0 to 67.9) | 1000 (73.2) (70.8 to 75.6) | 579 (85.4) (82.6 to 88.2) |
| Can include support for family members | 969 (62.9) (60.4 to 65.4) | 958 (70.1) (67.6 to 72.6) | 562 (82.7) (79.8 to 85.7) |
| Delivered with a team approach | 968 (62.7) (60.1 to 65.2) | 962 (70.2) (67.7 to 72.7) | 578 (85.0) (82.2 to 87.9) |
| Can be provided together with other medical treatments aimed at prolonging life | 829 (53.7) (51.1 to 56.3) | 822 (60.0) (57.3 to 62.7) | 461 (67.5) (63.8 to 71.1) |
| Can be involved early in the course of illness | 620 (39.9) (37.4 to 42.4) | 615 (44.6) (41.9 to 47.3) | 357 (51.5) (47.7 to 55.4) |
| High actual knowledge‡ | 532 (34.1) (31.7 to 36.5) | 529 (38.2) (35.6 to 40.9) | 320 (46.1) (42.3 to 50.0) |
*For each component, participants indicated ‘Yes, I knew this’ or ‘No, I didn’t know this’.
†High perceived knowledge was defined as endorsing ‘I know what palliative care is and could explain it to someone else’.
‡High actual knowledge was defined as knowing at least five out of eight components, including that palliative care ‘can be provided together with other medical treatments aimed at prolonging life’ and that palliative care ‘can be involved early in the course of illness’.