What do hospice websites communicate about the meaning of palliative care?
Browne, Charlotte Williams, Lucy Taylor, Vanessa
Browne, Charlotte
Williams, Lucy
Taylor, Vanessa
Glos Author
Date
2025-05-21
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Abstract
Background: The public has a limited understanding of the term palliative care and the role of hospices, creating misunderstanding and influencing access to these services. Globally, the public will access hospice websites to source information, reinforcing the importance of clear and concise messaging. Few studies have focused on how hospice websites communicate with service users and the public about what they do.
Aim/Research question or hypothesis: To explore how adult hospices communicate to the public via their websites about the meaning of palliative care, what palliative care involves and who it can help.
Methods: We identified key terms in the International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care (IAHPC) and World Health Organisation (WHO) published definitions of palliative care to develop a framework for analysis. An artificial intelligence assisted algorithm was used to scan through n=130 United Kingdom hospice websites and identify how frequently these key terms were included.
In addition, a manual in-depth review of n=24 hospice websites was undertaken to obtain detailed information about palliative care definitions, description of service and service users. These data were analysed using the developed framework.
Results: There was wide variability in information on hospice websites. Some key terms were used frequently - ‘family’, ‘support’ and ‘end of life’ were included on >90% of sites. Whereas, other terms were rarely used - ‘relieves’, ‘natural process’ and ‘throughout illness’ were included on <20% of sites.
The in-depth review identified that only 8 out of 24 hospice websites included a definition of palliative care, and these were generally poorly aligned with the published WHO and IAHPC definitions.
Discussion: Hospice websites provide limited and inadequate information regarding what palliative care is or the services provided.
Hospice websites should be updated to include a clear and consistent definition of palliative care to help address misunderstandings and to improve engagement with the public.
Citation
Browne, C., Williams, L., Perkins, P., & Taylor, V. (2025). What do hospice websites communicate about the meaning of palliative care? Palliative Medicine, 39(2_suppl)
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