Studies find that terminally ill people in hospice care live at least as long as those not receiving palliative care. Originally published May 2011 on Obit-Mag.com.

A Korean study of terminally ill patients reveals that hospice care does not, as some fear, hasten death. Researchers followed 481 patients diagnosed with terminal cancer and found that those who chose hospice care, roughly a third, lived on average for 64 days, compared with 67 days for the rest.

Hospice, which focuses on quality of life for a patient rather than aggressive, often painful therapy, is a type of palliative care. Late last year, a study by researchers at Massachussets General Hospital in Boston indicated that palliative care may in fact extend patients' lives.

The Korean study stops short of such claims, but Dr. Young Ho Yun of the National Cancer Center in South Korea said to Reuters,

"I advise that earlier palliative care may help terminally ill patients get quality of care and life, and encourage palliative care use for the terminally ill."

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