Palliative care in Delhi- Where do we stand?

A recent Study published in the Indian Journal of Palliative Care aimed to estimate the need for palliative care in an urban resettlement colony in Delhi. The study revealed that the need for palliative care in an urban resettlement colony of North India was necessary, moreover the awareness about the palliative care being poor made its need less.

A community-based cross-sectional study was performed where the researchers trained four multipurpose workers to screen the households during their routine household-to-household visits. The screening for the need for palliative care was done using three questions – that is, (1) presence of a bedridden patient or (2) person in need for help in activities of daily living or (3) not able to go for work due to any physical chronic illness. If the answer to any of the three screening questions was yes for any member in a household, then these households were visited by a community physician trained in palliative care and a medical social service officer to confirm the need for palliative care.

Patients were administered a semi-structured questionnaire containing the sociodemographic details and an assessment of disease status and review of health records was done. The patient and his/her caregiver were also assessed for awareness regarding palliative care. A total of 2028 households were screened and it was found that the need for palliative care was found to be 1.5/1000 population.

The common diseases which required palliative care were stroke with a focal neurological deficit (45.8%), osteoarthritis with marked dependence (20.8%) and cancer (12.5%). None of the patients was receiving palliative care as patients and their caregivers were not aware of the term palliative care/end of life care/home care for bedridden people/community-based care.

So the researchers concluded that the need for palliative care in an urban resettlement colony of North India was found to be 1.5/1000 population. However, although this concept is still in the initial stage, but awareness is required to estimate the need for palliative care in India.

Reference:

Ankit Chandra , Sushma Bhatnagar, Rakesh Kumar , Sanjay Kumar Rai , Baridalyne Nongkynrih; Estimating the Need for Palliative Care in an Urban Resettlement Colony of New Delhi, North India, Indian Journal of Palliative Care , Article in Press, Aug 2022.