Palliative Care Understanding Among U.S. Adults: Findings from HINTS 7

Limited public understanding remains a barrier to greater use of palliative care. Personal experiences with serious illness and caregiving may provide opportunities to learn about palliative care through healthcare encounters, conversations with healthcare providers, and participation in treatment decisions.

This study examined whether a self-reported history of serious health condition, caregiving experience, and their interaction were associated with palliative care understanding.

This cross-sectional study used nationally representative data from the 2024 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 7, Cycle 1. Palliative care understanding was assessed using a composite measure of awareness and knowledge. Survey-weighted logistic regression examined its associations with caregiving experience, serious health conditions, and their interaction, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.

The survey included 7,278 respondents, and the adjusted model included 6,128 complete cases. Caregivers had nearly twice the odds of adequate understanding compared with non-caregivers. Serious health condition was not associated with adequate understanding of palliative care. The interaction between serious health condition and caregiving experience was not significant. In exploratory analyses, awareness did not differ by history of cancer, heart disease, or lung disease.

Caregiving experience was associated with greater palliative care understanding, whereas self-reported history of cancer, heart disease, or lung disease was not significantly associated with greater palliative care understanding, whereas caregiving experience was associated with greater understanding. These findings raise questions about whether opportunities to introduce and explain palliative care during healthcare encounters are being fully used. More direct and consistent communication about palliative care may be needed throughout the course of serious illness.