After-death interviews with surrogates/bereaved family members: Some issues of validity

After-death into-views with bereaved respondents are an important tool in t he repertoire of researchers evaluating the quality of end-of-life care or investigating the experiences of people at the end of life. Despite the imp ortance of a,after-death interviews to our understanding of the last months of life, the validity of the information gathered has received little atte ntion. In this article., we review some of the available information, drawi ng on evidence from cognitive psychology as well as from palliative care st udies. Findings from cognitive psychology indicate that memory is a dynamic process, influenced by emotion state and the individual's perspective at t he time of the event and at recall. Further research is therefore needed to of information and research questions for which understand better the circ umstances, types of bereaved relatives are valid surrogates for people who have died. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee, 2001.