Web-Based Post-Bereavement Survey System in Specialized Palliative Care: A Feasibility Pilot Study

Web-Based Post-Bereavement Survey System in Specialized Palliative Care: A Feasibility Pilot Study

Tomoyo Sasahara,¹ Kazuki Sato,² Atsushi Hashimoto,³ Asuko Sekimoto,⁴ Sachiko Okayama,⁵ Yoshihiko Sakashita,⁶ Yoshiaki Satake,⁷ Takayuki Hisanaga,⁸ Yasuo Shima^8,9 and Mitsunori Miyashita¹⁰

¹Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Tokyo, Japan
²Nursing for Advanced Practice, Division of Integrated Health Sciences, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
³Department of Palliative Care, Okazaki City Hospital, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan
⁴Department of Nursing, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
⁵Department of Nursing, Takarazuka City Hospital, Takarazuka, Hyogo, Japan
⁶Department of Palliative Medicine, Chiba Cancer Center, Chiba, Chiba, Japan
⁷Department of Palliative Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁸Department of Palliative Medicine, Tsukuba Medical Center Hospital, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
⁹Hospice Palliative Care Japan, Tokyo, Japan
¹⁰Department of Palliative Nursing, Health Sciences, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

Web-based post-bereavement survey systems for specialized palliative care will enable obtaining timely results on the care quality from more participants at a lower cost. The primary aim of the study was to develop a web-based post-bereavement survey system and to compare response rates for different number of items. The secondary aim was to examine response bias between web-based and mail survey in post-bereavement surveys. Between January and April 2019, two cross-sectional web-based questionnaire surveys were conducted among the bereaved families from six inpatient palliative care units in Japan. Measurements included structure and process of end-of-life (EOL) care, overall care satisfaction, achievement of a good death, depression, grief status, web survey usability, and participant and bereaved family member characteristics. The long survey included 34 items, and the short survey included 16 items. There were no significant differences in the response rates between the long and short surveys (24% and 27%, respectively, p = 0.376). Compared with a previous nationwide post-bereavement mail survey, more children responded; however, the quality rating scores was unchanged. Despite low response rate, no apparent response bias was observed, indicating its feasibility. This survey method is low-cost, less burdensome to the institution, and allows for ongoing quality assurance.

Key words —— bereavement; feasibility study; online system; quality assurance

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2023 November, 261(3), 249-256.

Correspondence: Tomoyo Sasahara, R.N., Ph.D., Family Hospice Inc., Shin-Tokyo Building, 3-3-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005, Japan.

e-mail: t_sasahara@family-hospice.co.jp