Food and meals are embedded in people’s everyday social life. For people with progressive life-limiting conditions eating is often obstructed. When a dying person is cared for at home, family members often take responsibility for the provision of food and mealtimes. Previous research has shown that the situation around mealtimes can be stressful for patients and their partners. The overall aim of this thesis was to to explore meanings of eating deficiencies at the end of life, from a patient and partner perspective Methods: Interpretive descriptive design was chosen as the study sought to explore experiences related to eating deficiencies. Data was based on repeated individual interviews with dying persons (study I) and retrospective individual interviews with partners 3-6 months after the death of ill persons (study II). Data collection and analysis were guided by the interpretive description method. Findings: The results from the two studies showed that eating deficiencies among people with progressive life-limiting conditions and their partners are existentially loaded markers of impending death (I, II). The results also show that eating deficiencies can influence relationships and social interaction in ways that may hamper the possibility of sharing moments together with friends and family members that are valuable during the last period of life (I). Conclusion: Efforts to minimize the distress people with eating deficiencies and progressive life-limiting conditions and their partners may experience are important for well-being. Person-centered approaches to acknowledge and support individuals’ own ways of experiencing and dealing with eating deficiencies are recommended that include a holistic perspective on food and eating.

The overall aim was to explore patients’, partners’, and registered nurses’ (RNs)experiences of mealtimes in palliative care contexts. Qualitative (studies I, II, IVand V) and quantitative (study IV) study designs were used to explore the experiences of mealtimes in palliative care from various perspectives. Three interview studies (studies I, II, V), a mixed-method systematic review (study III),and a cross-sectional study (study IV), were conducted. The findings showed that patient’s appreciated support that resembled their needs and wishes during hampered eating. Being encouraged to eat could both reduce and induce distress and well-being, social life was affected. Food and eating had existential loading (I, III). The partners described how they tried to support their dying partner by striving to maintain ordinariness around food and mealtimes, as well as finding new ways to support eating (II). RNs highlighted that food and mealtimes in palliative care cause psychosocial distress for patients and their families. Exploration implies that RNs perceptions align with patients’and families’, indicating awareness of the challenges that patients and families face (IV). RNs in palliative care are well prepared to support patients with eating challenges related to physical problems, but might be less prepared to support existential, psychological, and social needs (V).In conclusion, efforts to minimize the distress that patients and families experience in relation to mealtimes in palliative care are required. An area in need of further development is how to support RNs in communicating about food and mealtimes in palliative care to support patients’, partners’, and families’ well-being at the patient’s end-of-life.