Palliative care has been shown to improve quality of life, receipt of goal-concordant care, end-of-life decision-making, and improvement in pain and symptoms in individuals with serious illness. However, palliative and end-of-life care remain underutilized in racial and ethnic minorities.1 Health disparities such as access, quality of care, and health outcomes among minority groups exist in delivery and receipt of care within the health care system, and this includes the care of individuals with serious illness and at the end of life.1
Racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to receive goal-concordant care, participate in advance care planning, and have access to palliative care or hospice.2-4 They are more likely to die in a hospital, have inadequate pain and symptom management, and experience poor provider-patient communication.5-7 Other contributing factors include lack of knowledge of hospice and palliative care services, mistrust of the health care system, spiritual and religious beliefs, provider bias, and cultural beliefs.1
Dr. Gina Kang
Despite these disparities, interventions have had limited success,8 and there are gaps in content, methods, and inclusion of racial and ethnic groups within palliative care research.7
Efforts to improve health equity for people with serious illness have been identified as an “urgent call to action.”1
A few recommended actionable items include delivering culturally competent care by ensuring availability of culturally and linguistically appropriate materials and information, education, and training for providers, and practicing cultural humility; contributing to workforce diversity by hiring and training diverse staff; and partnering with community organizations to build trust and to facilitate dissemination of culturally and linguistically appropriate information to providers in caring for their diverse patient populations.1,9
One of the first steps identified is to recognize that there is a problem and prioritize efforts to understand its “multifaceted nature.”10 This should occur on multiple levels including the individual (patient and caregiver), interpersonal (health care team), organization, and policy levels,10 and be done through clinical, research, and educational platforms.
At the interpersonal level, we as the health care team can start by reflecting, acknowledging biases, seeking educational and training opportunities on cross-cultural interactions, learning about cultural and spiritual beliefs, and developing skills in culturally and linguistically appropriate communication regarding goals of care and advance care planning.1,10
For those seeking resources, organizations such as the Center to Advance Palliative Care’s Project Equity and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine have ongoing efforts to educate and train physicians and health care professionals to improve and understand health equity in palliative care by providing resource portals, toolkits, training, and general information.
It is imperative to move forward in actionable ways to address not only racial and ethnic disparities, but advance equity in serious illness care for health care organizations, providers, and policymakers.1
Dr. Kang is in the division of gerontology and geriatric medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle.
References
1. Barrett NJ et al. N C Med J. 2020;81:254-6.
2. Johnson KS et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011;59:732-7.
3. Sharma RK et al. J Clin Oncol. 2015;33:3802-8.
4. Muni S et al. Chest. 2011;139:1025-33.
5. Anderson KO et al. J Pain. 2009;10:1187-204.
6. Mack JW et al. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170:1533-40.
7. Johnson KS. J Palliat Med. 2013;16(11):1329-34.
8. Brown CE et al. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2021;63(5):e465-e71.
9. Chambers B. Center for Advancing Palliative Care. July 9, 2020.
10. Koffman J et al. BMC Palliat Care. 2023;22(64):1-3.