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. 2025 May 1;8(5):e2510298.
doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.10298.

Referral Criteria for Specialist Palliative Care for Patients With Dementia

Yuchieh Kathryn Chang  1 , Jennifer Philip  2   3   4 , Jenny T van der Steen  5   6 , Lieve Van den Block  7 , Allyn Yin Mei Hum  8   9 , Pedro E Pérez-Cruz  10   11 , Carlos Paiva  12 , Masanori Mori  13 , Ping-Jen Chen  14   15   16 , Meera R Agar  17 , Laura Hanson  18 , Catherine J Evans  19 , David Hui  1
Affiliations

Referral Criteria for Specialist Palliative Care for Patients With Dementia

Yuchieh Kathryn Chang et al. JAMA Netw Open. .

Abstract

Importance: Patients with dementia have considerable supportive care needs. Specialist palliative care may be beneficial, but it is unclear which patients are most appropriate for referral and when they should be referred.

Objective: To identify a set of consensus referral criteria for specialist palliative care for patients with dementia.

Design, setting, and participants: In this survey study using 3 rounds of Delphi surveys, an international, multidisciplinary panel of clinicians from 5 continents with expertise in the integration of dementia and palliative care were asked to rate 83 putative referral criteria (generated from a previous systematic review and steering committee discussion). Specialist palliative care was defined as an interdisciplinary team consisting of practitioners with advanced knowledge and skills in palliative medicine offering consultative services for specialist-level palliative care in (nonhospice) inpatient, outpatient, community, and home-based settings.

Main outcomes and measures: Consensus was defined a priori as at least 70% agreement among experts. A criterion was coded as major if the experts advocated that meeting 1 criterion alone was satisfactory to justify a referral. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics.

Results: Of the 63 invited and eligible panelists, the response rate was 58 (92.1%) in round 1, 58 (92.1%) in round 2, and 60 (95.2%) in round 3. Of the 58 panelists who provided demographic data in round 1, most were aged 40 to 49 years (28 of 58 [48.3%]), and 29 panelists (50%) each were men and women. Panelists achieved consensus on 15 major and 42 minor criteria for specialist palliative care referral. The 15 major criteria were grouped under 5 categories, including dementia type (eg, rapidly progressive dementia), symptom distress (eg, severe physical symptoms), psychosocial factors or decision-making (eg, request for hastened death, assisted suicide, or euthanasia), comorbidities or complications (eg, ≥2 episodes of aspiration pneumonia in the past 12 months); and hospital use (eg, ≥2 hospitalizations within the past 3 months).

Conclusions and relevance: In this Delphi survey study, international experts reached consensus on a range of criteria for referral to specialist palliative care. With testing and validation, these criteria may be used to standardize specialist palliative care access for patients with dementia across various care settings.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Hanson reported receiving grants from the National Institutes of Health, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and serving as a science advisor to the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine outside the submitted work. Dr Hui reported receiving the Dallas Fort Worth Living Legend Professorship funded by the National Cancer Institute outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.. Delphi Process for Reaching International Consensus for Specialist Palliative Care Referral in Patients With Dementia
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.10304

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