Awareness and misconceptions of palliative care among paid, unpaid, and non-caregivers in the U.S.

Palliative care improves quality of life for individuals with serious illnesses; however, misconceptions about it remain widespread. Caregivers, both paid professionals and unpaid family members, serve as critical intermediaries in healthcare decision-making for these patients. Little is known about differences in understanding of palliative care among non-caregivers, paid caregivers, and unpaid informal caregivers.

We analyzed nationally representative data from the 2024 Health Information National Trends Survey. Survey design-adjusted Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression models were used to compare palliative care awareness and misconceptions across groups with different caregiving experiences.

A total of 5,835 respondents (representing 217,985,076 U.S. adults) were included in the final analysis. Overall, 45.3% of non-caregivers, 55.9% of paid caregivers, and 61.9% of unpaid caregivers (p < .001) reported palliative care awareness. Awareness was highest among caregivers who cared for parents only (65.7%) or for patients with cancer (76.3%). In adjusted analyses, both paid (aOR, 2.88; 95% CI, 1.56–5.33) and unpaid (aOR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.68–3.27) caregivers had significantly higher odds of awareness compared with non-caregivers. Among those aware of palliative care, paid caregivers were most likely to hold the misconception that palliative care requires stopping other treatments (48.3% vs. 20.8% unpaid vs. 20.1% non-caregivers; p = .041).

Caregivers exhibit significantly greater palliative care awareness than non-caregivers, though paid caregivers report more misconceptions. Awareness also varies by caregiving relationship and disease type. These findings underscore the need for targeted educational strategies to enhance accurate understanding of palliative care across caregiving groups.