Perceptions of palliative care in a South Asian community: findings from an observational study
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Perceptions of palliative care in a South Asian community: findings from an observational study Naheed Dosani1,2*, Ravi Bhargava1,3,4, Amit Arya1,2,4, Celeste Pang3, Pavinder Tut3, Achal Sharma3 and Martin Chasen1,4
Abstract Background: Patients often view “palliative care” (PC) as an approach that is synonymous with end-of-life and death, leading to shock and fear. Differing cultural and social norms and religious affiliations greatly determine perception of PC among diverse populations. Methods: This prospective observational study aimed to explore perceptions of PC among South Asian community members at one Canadian site. Patients who identified themselves as being of South Asian origin were consented and enrolled at a PC Clinic at a community hospital in Brampton, Ontario serving a large South Asian population. Participants filled out an 18-question survey created for the study and responded to a semi-structured interview consisting of 8 questions that further probed their perceptions of PC. Survey responses and semi-structured interviews content were analyzed by four authors who reached consensus on key exploratory findings. Results: Thirty-four participants of South Asian origin were recruited (61.8% males), and they were distributed by their age group as follows: [(30–49) - 18%; (50–64) – 21%; (65–79) - 41%; (≥ 80) – 21%]. Five main exploratory findings emerged: (i) differing attitudes towards talking about death; (ii) the key role of family in providing care; (iii) a significant lack of prior knowledge of PC; (iv) a common emphasis on the importance of alleviating suffering and pain to maintain comfort; and (v) that cultural values, faith, or spiritual belief do not pose a necessary challenge to acceptance of PC services. Conclusions: Observations from this study provide a source of reference to understand the key findings and variability in perceptions of palliative care in South Asian communities. Culturally competent interventions based on trends observed in this study could assist Palliative Physicians in delivering personalized care to South Asian populations. Keywords: Palliative care, Cultural competence, Social determinants of health, Palliative perceptions, South Asian community
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Division of Supportive and Palliative Care, Brampton Civic Hospital, William Osler Health System, 2100 Bovaird Drive East, Brampton, Ontario, Canada 2 Division of Palliative Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in thi
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