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Risk factors for hospital death in conditions needing palliative care: Nationwide population-based death certificate study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Most people would prefer to die at home as opposed to hospital; therefore, understanding mortality patterns by place of death is essential for health resources allocation. AIM:We examined trends and risk factors for hospital death in conditions needing palliative care in a country without integrated palliative care. DESIGN:This is a death certificate study. We examined factors associated with hospital death using logistic regression. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS:All adults (1,045,381) who died between 2003 and 2012 in Portugal were included. We identified conditions needing palliative care from main causes of death: cancer, heart/cerebrovascular, renal, liver, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases, dementia/Alzheimer's/senility and HIV/AIDS. RESULTS:Conditions needing palliative care were responsible for 70.7% deaths ( N = 738,566, median age 80); heart and cerebrovascular diseases (43.9%) and cancer (32.2%) accounted for most. There was a trend towards hospital death (standardised percentage: 56.3% in 2003, 66.7% in 2012; adjusted odds ratio: 1.04, 95% confidence interval: 1.04-1.04). Hospital death risk was higher for those aged 18-39 years (3.46, 3.25-3.69 vs aged 90+), decreasing linearly with age; lower in dementia/Alzheimer's/senility versus cancer (0.13, 0.13-0.13); and higher for the married and in HIV/AIDS (3.31, 3.00-3.66). Effects of gender, working status, weekday and month of death, hospital beds availability, urbanisation level and deprivation were small. CONCLUSION:The upward hospital death trend and fact that being married are risk factors for hospital death suggest that a reliance on hospitals may coexist with a tradition of extended family support. The sustainability of this model needs to be assessed within the global transition pattern in where people die.

SUBMITTER: Gomes B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5888774 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Risk factors for hospital death in conditions needing palliative care: Nationwide population-based death certificate study.

Gomes Barbara B Pinheiro Maria João MJ Lopes Sílvia S de Brito Maja M Sarmento Vera P VP Lopes Ferreira Pedro P Barros Henrique H

Palliative medicine 20171213 4

<h4>Background</h4>Most people would prefer to die at home as opposed to hospital; therefore, understanding mortality patterns by place of death is essential for health resources allocation.<h4>Aim</h4>We examined trends and risk factors for hospital death in conditions needing palliative care in a country without integrated palliative care.<h4>Design</h4>This is a death certificate study. We examined factors associated with hospital death using logistic regression.<h4>Setting/participants</h4>A ...[more]

PMID: 29235927

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Project description:BackgroundFew hospitals and heart failure (HF) clinics offer concurrent palliative care (PC) together with life-prolonging therapies. To know the prevalence of patients in HF clinics needing PC and useful tools to recognize them are the first steps to extending PC in those settings. However, it is still unknown whether tools commonly used to identify patients with HF needing PC can correctly distinguish them. Two systematic reviews found that the NECesidades PALiativas (NECPAL) tool was one of the two most commonly used tools to asses PC needs in HF patients. Therefore, we assessed 1) the prevalence of PC needs in HF clinics according to the NECPAL tool, and 2) the characteristics of the patients identified as having PC; mainly, their quality of life (QoL), symptom burden, and psychosocial problems.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted at two HF clinics in Colombia. We assessed the prevalence of PC in the overall sample and in subgroups according to clinical and demographic variables. We assessed QoL, symptom burden, and psychosocial problems using the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS). We compared the results of these tools between patients identified as having PC needs (+NECPAL) and patients identified as not having PC needs (-NECPAL).ResultsAmong the 178 patients, 78 (44%) had PC needs. The prevalence of PC needs was twice as nigh in patients NYHA III/IV as in patients NYHA I/II and almost twice as high in patients older than 70 years as in patients younger than 70 years. Compared to -NECPAL patients, +NECPAL patients had worse QoL, more severe shortness of breath, tiredness, drowsiness, and pain, and more psychosocial problems.ConclusionThe prevalence of PC needs in outpatient HF clinics is high and is even higher in older patients and in patients at more advanced NYHA stages. Compared to patients identified as not having PC needs, patients identified as having PC needs have worse QoL, more severe symptoms, and greater psychosocial problems. Including a PC provider in the multidisciplinary team of HF clinics may help to assess and cover these needs.

Project description:BackgroundThere is no nationwide data on polypharmacy in palliative care in Japan. In this study, the research committee of the Japanese Society for Pharmaceutical Palliative Care and Sciences conducted an online survey on polypharmacy and inappropriate prescriptions involving its members who worked as hospital pharmacists.MethodsThe online questionnaire included questions about hospital pharmacist interventions for cancer patients who regularly used six or more drugs during a two-month period from October to November 2017.ResultsOf 2618 hospital pharmacists, 359 responded (13.7%). With regard to cancer patients receiving opioids, 40.9 and 22.3% of the respondents replied that percentages of patients prescribed six or more regular medications were "40-69%" and "70-99%," respectively. Regarding patients on polypharmacy, 73.0% of the respondents reported a low or moderate rate of inappropriate prescriptions, with responses such as "long-term administration of irresponsible or aimless medications", "adverse drug reactions," and "duplication of the pharmacological effect". Furthermore, 24.2, 46.8, and 23.4% of respondents replied that the rates of drug reduction due to pharmacist recommendations were "0", "1-39%", and "more than 40%," respectively. Pharmacist interventions decreased the use of inappropriate medications, including antiemetics, gastrointestinal medications, and hypnotic sedatives, and reduced or prevented adverse drug reactions such as extrapyramidal symptoms, delirium, and sleepiness. Similar results were obtained for cancer patients who did not use opioids. However, the rates of cancer patients on polypharmacy and with reduction of inappropriate medications by pharmacist interventions were significantly higher in cancer patients receiving opioids. Finally, recommendations of board-certified pharmacists in palliative pharmacy contributed to a decrease in the use of inappropriate medications in cancer patients on polypharmacy (p?=?0.06).ConclusionThis nationwide survey clarified pharmacist interventions for polypharmacy in palliative care in Japan. Our data showed frequent polypharmacy in cancer patients receiving opioids, and benefits of pharmacist interventions, especially by board-certified pharmacists in palliative pharmacy, for reducing inappropriate medications and improving adverse drug reactions.Trial registrationThe study approval numbers in the institution; 0046. Registered November 6, 2017.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Despite the great advances in the concept of palliative care (PC) and its benefits, its application seems to be delayed, leaving unfulfilled the many needs of patients and family members. One way to overcome this difficulty could be to develop a new training programme by palliative care specialists to improve PC primary skills in healthcare professionals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the training's impact on trainees within a hospital setting using Kirkpatrick's and Moore's models. METHODS:We adopted a mixed-method evaluation with concurrent triangulation. The evaluation followed the first three steps of Kirkpatrick's and Moore's models and included a pre- and post-training evaluation through self-administered questionnaires and focus groups. We used the McNemar statistical test. RESULTS:The results highlighted the significant amount of knowledge acquired by the hospital professionals after training, in terms of increasing their knowledge of palliative care and in terms of the change in meaning that they attributed to phenomena related to chronicity and incurability, which they encounter daily in their professional practice. In both quantitative and qualitative research, the results, in synthesis, highlight: (i) the development of a new concept of palliative care, centred on the response to the holistic needs of people; (ii) that palliative care can also be extended to non-oncological patients in advanced illness stages (our training was directed to Geriatrics and Nephrology/Dialysis professionals); (iii) the empowerment and the increase in self-esteem that healthcare professionals gained, from learning about the logistical and structural organization of palliative care, to activate and implement PC; (iv) the need to share personal aspects of their professional life (this result emerges only in qualitative research); (v) the appreciation of cooperation and the joining of multiple competences towards a synergistic approach and enhanced outcomes. CONCLUSION:It is necessary to further develop rigorous research on training evaluation, at the most complex orders of the Kirkpatrick and Moore models, to measure primary PC skills in health care professionals. This will develop the effectiveness of the integration of I- and II-level palliative care competencies in hospitals and improve outcomes of patients' and families' quality of life.

Project description:BackgroundThe UK National Health Service is striving to improve access to palliative care for patients with advanced cancer however limited information exists on the level of palliative care support currently provided in the UK. We aimed to establish the duration and intensity of palliative care received by patients with advanced cancer and identify which cancer patients are missing out.MethodsRetrospective cancer registry, primary care and secondary care data were obtained and linked for 2474 patients who died of cancer between 2010 and 2012 within a large metropolitan UK city. Associations between the type, duration, and amount of palliative care by demographic characteristics, cancer type, and therapies received were assessed using Chi-squared, Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Multinomial multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the odds of receiving community and/or hospital palliative care compared to no palliative care by demographic characteristics, cancer type, and therapies received.ResultsOverall 64.6% of patients received palliative care. The average palliative care input was two contacts over six weeks. Community palliative care was associated with more palliative care events (p<0.001) for a longer duration (p<0.001). Patients were less likely to receive palliative care if they were: male (p = 0.002), aged 80 years or over (p<0.05), diagnosed with lung cancer (p<0.05), had not received an opioid prescription (p<0.001), or had not received chemotherapy (p<0.001). Patients given radiotherapy were more likely to receive community only palliative care compared to no palliative care (Odds Ratio = 1.49, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.16-1.90).ConclusionTimely supportive care for cancer patients is advocated but these results suggest that older patients and those who do not receive anti-cancer treatment or opioid analgesics miss out. These patients should be targeted for assessment to identify unmet needs which could benefit from palliative care input.

Project description:ObjectiveDesire for death (DfD) is a complex and multifactorial dimension of end-of-life experience. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of DfD and its associations, arising within the setting of a tertiary home-based palliative care (PC) unit.MethodRetrospective analysis of all DfD entries registered in our anonymized database from October 2018 to April 2020.ResultsOf the 163 patients anonymously registered in our database, 122 met entry criteria; 52% were male, the average age was 69 years old; 85% had malignancies, with a mean performance status (PPS) of 56%. The prevalence of DfD was 20%. No statistical differences were observed between patients with and without DfD regarding sex, age, marital status, religion, social support, prior PC or psychological follow-up, type of diagnosis, presence of advanced directives/living will, time since diagnosis and PC team's follow-up time. Statistically significant associations were found between higher PPS scores and DfD (OR = 0.96; 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.93-0.99]); Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale scores for drowsiness (OR = 4.05; 95% CI [1.42-11.57]), shortness of breath (OR = 3.35; 95% CI [1.09-10.31]), well-being (OR = 7.64; 95% CI [1.63-35.81]). DfD was associated with being depressed (OR = 19.24; 95% CI [3.09-+inf]); feeling anxious (OR = 11.11; 95% CI [2.51-49.29]); HADS anxiety subscale ≥11 (OR = 25.0; 95% CI [2.10-298.29]); will-to-live (OR = 39.53; 95% CI [4.85-321.96]). Patients feeling a burden were more likely to desire death (OR = 14.67; 95% CI [1.85-116.17]), as well as those who were not adapted to the disease (OR = 4.08; 95% CI [1.30-12.84]). In multivariate regression analyses predicting DfD, three independent factors emerged: higher PPS scores were associated with no DfD (aOR = 0.95; 95% CI [0.91-0.99]), while the sense of being a burden (aOR = 12.82; 95% CI [1.31-125.16]) and worse well-being (aOR = 7.72; 95% CI [1.26-47.38]) predicted DfD.Significance of resultsPrevalence of DfD was 20% and consistent with previous Portuguese evidence on DfD in PC inpatients. Both physical and psychosocial factors contribute to a stronger DfD.

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Risk factors for hospital death in conditions needing palliative care: Nationwide population-based death certificate study.

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Risk factors for hospital death in conditions needing palliative care: Nationwide population-based death certificate study.

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