[Health care support for cancer patients who died in their homes in Mallorca]

The conditions of death are studied in a sample of oncological patients who died at home. By interviewing people, relatives or not, who assumed the main responsibility for the patient's care, information was gathered about different aspects of the patient's life in its terminal period. In this study, information was collected about the kind of medical assistance offered at home, and its intensity. Among 182 cases, 151 primary caregivers were interviewed; 78% of them were visited by the family doctor, on a regular or sporadic basis. Both the degree of family doctor information and the frequency of his/her visits to the patient, were related to the place of residence (better knowledge of the disease and higher frequency of visits in non-urban areas). 70% of the patients who were hospitalised at any time (127), maintained contact in some way with the attending hospital. This contact was direct (the patient attended the hospital) in 46% of cases. The factors dependent on the disease (diagnosis and symptoms) did not show any influence on the intensity of health care support.