Table 1 Study objectives

Objective 1. To describe and compare home, hospital, hospice and nursing home deaths in terms of:

   1.1. place where the patients' spent most of the three months before death;

   1.2. patients and relatives' preferences for place of death;

   1.3. patients' palliative outcomes (symptoms and quality of life in the week before death; attainment of their preferred place of death) and relatives' outcomes (grief intensity; attainment of their preferred place of death);

   1.4. use, type and costs of and relatives' satisfaction with formal care received at home and in institutions in the three months before death (including GP care, district nursing, specialist nursing, specialist home palliative care teams; nursing and medical care in hospitals, inpatient hospices and nursing homes);

   1.5. use, type and costs of informal care in the three months before death.

Objective 2. To describe and compare home vs. institutional deaths on the same five aspects as in objective 1;

Objective 3. To describe and compare deaths in high vs. low home death rate areas and high vs. low deprivation levels on the same five aspects as in objective 1;

Objective 4. To determine the relative influence of different factors on death at home (vs. in institutions and vs. hospital deaths) and the amount of variation in place of death they explain, comparing areas with high and low home death rates and with high and low deprivation levels;

Objective 5. To determine whether death at home (vs. in institutions and vs. hospital deaths) is independently associated with outcomes and costs, comparing areas with high and low home death rates and with high and low deprivation levels.