Patient awareness of prognosis, patient–family caregiver congruence on the preferred place of death, and caregiving burden of families contribute to the quality of life for terminally ill cancer patients in Taiwan

Abstract

QOL is not only related to the unavoidable decline in physical condition and daily functioning of the dying patient but is also related to domains that, as death approaches, have the potential to show improvement through the efforts of health-care professionals, such as presenting prognostic information to optimize the patients' understanding and assists them with psychological adjustments, facilitating patient-family caregiver congruence on the end-of-life care decision regarding the place of death and lightening the caregiving burden of family caregivers.