Abstract

Background

Pediatric palliative care (PPC) addresses the physical and psychological needs of children suffering from life-limiting diseases. To define prevention and educational plans and to properly allocate resources, a precise estimation of the PPC burden is required.

Objectives

To estimate the current number of children requiring PPC in Italy, useful to assist policy-makers and healthcare bodies in the organization and allocation of PPC resources.

Methods

Literature data, The Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life and Italian national databases have been consulted.

Results

According to our estimation, at present, a total of 20,540–32,864 children in Italy require PPC (34–54 children/100,000 inhabitants) of whom 18 children/100,000 inhabitants require specialized PPC.

Conclusions

The present work is a fundamental tool to be used by the institutions, the local networks of PPC and the health programmers when formulating organizational models and care plans consistent with the actual need for PPC.

Details

Title
An estimation of the number of children requiring pediatric palliative care in Italy
Author
Benini, Franca  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bellentani, Mariadonata; Reali, Laura; Lazzarin, Pierina; De Zen, Lucia; Pellegatta, Federico; Pierangelo Lora Aprile; Scaccabarozzi, Gianlorenzo
Pages
1-3
Section
Letter to the Editor
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
BioMed Central
ISSN
17208424
e-ISSN
18247288
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-020-00952-y
ProQuest document ID
2478719124
Copyright
© 2021. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.