The presence of family and friends at the end of life: the case of the French overseas departments

Since more people die at home in overseas France than in mainland France, the support of family and friends plays an even greater role there. We seek to characterise the potential care network and the one actually involved in patients' end-of-life care. 

The data come from the End-of-Life in Overseas France survey (2022), which we conducted among physicians who certified the deaths, using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 1,815 questionnaires were completed. 

We identified the people present during the last month of life and assessed their involvement in end-of-life care. Specific analyses were carried out on cancer patients and on people with cognitive disorders. 

Speaker

Sophie Pennec, PhD, is a senior researcher (directrice de recherches) at the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) and adjunct associate professor at the School of Demography. A demographer by training, she has been studying end-of-life issues for the past 25 years (medical decisions, palliative care, end-of-life trajectories). She conducted the end-of-life surveys in metropolitan France and in the French overseas territories, and she is preparing a new round of surveys following the enactment of an assisted dying law in France (passed by Parliament in 2026). She has also been involved in various research projects using microsimulation models of social policies in France and Australia.

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