Places of death: state and prospects of research Objectives To evaluate the state of research, draw the epistemological, thematic and methodological limits and to propose some avenues of research for the future.
Methods: Review of 35 articles published between 1983-2003 in English language.
Results: The research on the places of death has obvious limits on several points: On the epistemological level (lack of studies related to the nature, roles, functions, social and cultural representations of the places of death within the health systems); On the thematic level (large focus on the cancerous patients, lack of impact studies on bereavements and the quality of care, use of traditional variables of social differentiation, no recourse to the roles of the social, legal, and financial practices affecting the distribution and the trends of place of death. Only four research fields are covered (distribution, trends, determinants and impact of cancer programs on the place of death trends). On the methodological level (high prevalence of quantitative methods; sources, quality and data reliability concerns; difficulties of international comparison; studies limited to the Western world). On its social impact (few or even no impact studies). 5.Discussion and prospects In order develop the research on place of death and its it is important (a) to adopt an multidisciplinary approach which allows to integrate human and social sciences knowledge in the studies (b) to analyse their nature, roles, functions, social representations and importance in the health care systems (c) to stimulate the request for data on behalf of the potential users (d) to manage comparative studies within the social groups and various medical models (e) to create structures for collecting and analysing data (f) to include the variable "place of death" in the national and international mortality statistics.