Potential for response bias in family surveys about end-of-life care in the ICU

Potential for response bias in family surveys about end-of-life care in the ICU. CHEST, Dec. 2009, vol. 136 (6), p. 1496-1502.

Kross, E.K., et al.

http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/136/6/1496.full

After-death surveys are an important source of information about the quality of end-of-life care, but response rates generally are low. Our goal was to understand the potential for nonresponse bias in survey studies of family members after a patient's death in the hospital ICU by identifying differences in patient demographics and delivery of palliative care between patients whose families respond to a survey about end-of-life care and those whose families do not.