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Article History

Received: 23 December 2022

Accepted: 3 August 2023

First Online: 10 August 2023

Declarations

:

: One author (NP) is a section editor at BMC Palliative Care. She has previously published with the other authors (BR and AG) and shares the same institution as them (Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University). All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

: Approval from the chief investigator was gained to use the data for secondary analysis. Ethics approval for the secondary data analysis was obtained from the Faculty of Health and Medicine Research Ethics Committee at Lancaster University on 26th May 2020 (reference number: FHMREC19099). The need for written informed consent was waived by the Faculty of Health and Medicine Research Ethics Committee at Lancaster University due to the retrospective nature of the study. Asking the participants for their consent was unfeasible because all patients had probably died by the end of the primary study period. An ethical judgement was made to justify reusing the data based on the fit between the purpose of the primary study and that of the secondary analysis. It was concluded that participants consented to the general analysis purpose and process, rather than specific research questions or analysis contexts. Therefore, consent for the secondary data analysis from research participants was assumed as it was seen as aligned with the original consent.

: Not applicable.