Palliative care

Ageing and Chronic Care

Definition. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and families facing life-threatening illness through prevention and relief of suffering.

Explanation

Coverage and access vary widely, even among European countries (Shuftan et al., 2025). Research in this field is difficult, and generalist services face specific barriers to participation (Walshe et al., 2024). Methodological work challenges assumptions about studying people near the end of life (Hopkinson et al., 2005).

Related concepts

Long-term care Patient-centered care Shared decision-making Informal care

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References

Hopkinson, J. B., Wright, D. N. M., & Corner, J. L. (2005). Seeking new methodology for palliative care research: challenging assumptions about studying people who are approaching the end of life. Palliative Medicine, 19, 532–537.

Shuftan, N., Dayan, M., Scobie, S., Wee, B., Dimova, A., Atanasova, E., Murauskiene, L., Gandré, C., Or, Z., Augusto, G. F., Habicht, T., Köhler, K., Kahur, K., Axelsson, B., Kroneman, M., de Jong, J., de Veer, A., Bemelmans, W., Pereira, C., … Panteli, D. (2025). The variation of coverage and access to palliative care for cancer patients in eight European countries: an exploratory vignette approach. BMC Palliative Care, 24 (188). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-025-01831-1

Walshe, C., Dunleavy, L., Preston, N., Payne, S., Ellershaw, J., Taylor, V., Mason, S., Nwosu, A. C., Gadoud, A., Board, R., Swash, B., Coyle, S., Dickman, A., Partridge, A., Halvorsen, J., & Hulbert‑Williams, N. (2024). Understanding barriers and facilitators to palliative and end-of-life care research: a mixed method study of generalist and specialist health, social care, and research professionals. BMC Palliative Care, 23 (159). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-024-01488-2

Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Palliative care. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/palliative-care/

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