Miccinesi, G.

Study objective: The Italian Survey of the Dying of Cancer (ISDOC) was undertaken to evaluate the experiences of Italian people dying from cancer during their last three months of life in all settings of care. Study design: A two-stage probability sample was used to estimate end-of-life outcomes of about 160 000 Italian cancer deaths. In the first stage, 30 of the 197 Italian Local Health Districts (LHD) were randomly selected after stratification.

Background: The rising number of deaths from cancer and other life-limiting illnesses is accompanied by a growing number of family carers who provide long-lasting care, including end-of-life care. This population-based epidemiological study aimed to describe and compare in four European countries the prevalence of and factors associated with physical or emotional overburden and difficulties in covering care-related costs among family carers of people at the end of life.