Palliative Care Coverage across European National Health Systems: Proposal of a Synthetic Indicator

Miguel Antonio Sánchez-Cárdenas, Eduardo Garralda, Edgar Benítez, Natalia Arias-Casais, Danny van Steijn and Carlos Centeno
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Miguel Antonio Sánchez-Cárdenas: ATLANTES Global Palliative Care Observatory, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, 31001 Pamplona, Spain
Eduardo Garralda: ATLANTES Global Palliative Care Observatory, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, 31001 Pamplona, Spain
Edgar Benítez: DATAI, Instituto de Ciencia de los Datos e Inteligencia Artificial, University of Navarra, 31001 Pamplona, Spain
Natalia Arias-Casais: ATLANTES Global Palliative Care Observatory, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, 31001 Pamplona, Spain
Danny van Steijn: ATLANTES Global Palliative Care Observatory, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, 31001 Pamplona, Spain
Carlos Centeno: ATLANTES Global Palliative Care Observatory, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, 31001 Pamplona, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 20, 1-10

Abstract: Background: The coverage of palliative care (PC) may be understood as a country’s capacity to offer prevention and relief from serious health-related suffering in relation to an existing need. The aim of this study is to estimate European countries´ coverage capacities. Method: Secondary analysis of three indicators, including the number of specialized services (SSPC), integration capacity scores (ICS) and the PC needs. By means of a K-medians clustering supervised algorithm, three coverage profiles were obtained: (1) Advanced: countries with high ICS and SSPC, and low PC needs; (2) Limited: countries with low ICS and SSPC, and low PC needs; and (3) Low: countries with low ICS and SSPC and high PC needs. Results: On average, the ratio of specialized services per population was 0.79 per 100,000 inhabitants, the average ICS was 19.62 and the average number of deceased patients with SHS per 100,000 inhabitants was 5.69. Twenty countries (41%) reached an advanced coverage profile. Nine countries (18%) demonstrated a limited coverage profile; and 20 countries (41%) fell under a low-coverage capacity. Conclusion: The level of palliative care coverage across Europe shows that 59% of European countries have either limited or very low availability of PC resources as regards their palliative care needs.

Keywords: palliative care; integrated; healthcare indicators; Europe; national-level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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