How compassionate is your neighborhood? Results of a cross-sectional survey on neighborhood participation regarding serious illness, death, and loss.

ATTITUDES toward death; CROSS-sectional method; EMPATHY; VOLUNTEER service; ATTITUDES toward illness; RESEARCH funding; PALLIATIVE treatment; COMPASSION; SOCIAL cohesion; BEREAVEMENT; SURVEYS; CAREGIVERS; PUBLIC health; CONFIDENCE intervals; NEIGHBORHOOD characteristics; SOCIAL participation

We conducted a cross-sectional survey measuring the extent and nature of neighborhood participation regarding serious illness, death and loss and the factors that are associated with it. We distributed the survey to 2324 adult citizens in two neighborhoods in Flanders, Belgium, to which 714 citizens responded (response rate 30.7%). Of the respondents, 42.4% participated in at least one action in their neighborhood around serious illness, death, or loss, for 30.8% of them this participation was sporadic. Most of the respondents participated by helping neighbors (32.4%) or by volunteering (10.3%). We found a positive association between perceived neighborhood social cohesion (β = 0.100; CI = 0.003-0.040), previous experiences with serious illness, death, and loss (β = 0.158; CI = 0.204-0.586) and neighborhood participation around serious illness, death and loss. Future research should investigate strategies on how to move from death literacy developed through illness, caregiving and bereavement experiences to neighborhood participation around these topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Death Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)