Quality of Life and Quality of Dying: Attaining the Optimal Goa - Abstract
With population ageing worldwide, increasing emphasis is being placed on quality of life at the last stages of various chronic diseases and frailty, such that the principles of palliative care would apply to a large number of older people. In many countries health care policies have not caught up with such needs, although palliative care may be comparatively well developed for those with cancer. This commentary describes the ideal goals articulated by developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, and using Hong Kong as a case study, shows that raising capacity among doctors in death competence, as well as health literacy among the public in these issues, are necessary steps before such goals can be attained.