Dying of cancer. Factors influencing the place of death of patients

Palliative Care — Could Your Patient Have Been Managed at Home?

Palliative care, supportive care of the dying, is rapidly changing to better meet the needs of the patients and families. If palliative care is provided in the home rather than in hospital, there is a potential for improvement in the quality of life for patients and their families and a potential for cost reduction in the health care system. Our study was undertaken to determine whether or not palliative care patients admitted to University Hospital could have been cared for at home rather than in the hospital. The hospital charts of 96 palliative care patients were reviewed retrospectively. The results indicated that 61 % of these palliative care patients did not receive any palliative care at home and that 94% died in an acute care hospital setting. Only 18% lived in a setting other than their own home, and 68% had a spouse or other family member living with them at the time of their final admission. Based on the level of support in the place of residence prior to final admission and the reasons for admission, we determined that many of the patients could have been managed at home for at least some of the palliative care period if appropriate support from a home care team had been available.

Patterns of care at end of life for people with primary intracranial tumors: lessons learned

To determine the variability in processes of care in the last 6 months of life experienced by patients dying of primary intracranial tumors and potential predictors of place of death, a death-backwards cohort was assembled using historical data and 1,623 decedents were identified. 90 % of people had ≥ 1 admission to an acute care hospital and 23 % spent ≥ 3 months of their last 6 months of life in acute care. 44 % had ≥ 1 ER visits and 30 % were admitted ≥ 1 times to ICU. Only 18 % had a home visit by a physician. 10 % died at home but 49 % died in hospital, while 40 % died in a palliative care facility. Age, comorbidities, and being diagnosed with grade 4 astrocytoma were associated with greater burden of care. Level of care burden and age were associated with higher odds of dying in a treatment intensive place of death, being diagnosed with grade 4 astrocytoma had opposite effect. Despite valuable research efforts to improve the treatment of primary intracranial tumors that focus on biology, refinements to surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, there is also room to improve aspects of care at the end of life situation. An integrative approach for this patients' population, from diagnosis to death, could potentially reduce the care burden in the final period on the health care system, patient's family and improve access to a better place of death.

Predictors associated with the place of death in a country with increasing hospital deaths

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the contribution of type of illness, socio-demographic factors, and area of residence to the place of death in a country with increasing hospital deaths.

DESIGN

Descriptive study of hospital deaths using a 10-year death registration database from the Korean National Statistical Office.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Through the National Vital Statistics System, 2,402,259 deaths were registered in Korea from 1992 to 2001.

MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS

There was a significant trend toward an increase in the proportion of hospital deaths, from 16.6% in 1992 to 39.9% in 2001. The proportion of deaths at home decreased over that period, from 72.9 to 49.2%. The risk of hospital death versus home death was lower for those aged 75 years and over (adjusted odds ratio: 0.212; 95% confidence interval: 0.210-0.214) compared with those <55 years, and for people who were highly educated (2.04; 2.02-2.06), had white-collar jobs (1.55; 1.54-1.57), and resided in areas with more available hospital beds (2.46; 2.42-2.51). Compared with other causes of death, the risk of dying in hospital was higher for patients with ischaemic heart disease (1.83; 1.79-1.86), cancer (1.25; 1.23-1.26) and chronic lower respiratory disease (1.21; 1.18-1.23).

CONCLUSIONS

Trends in place of death are influenced by available hospital beds, socio-demographic factors and the nature of the terminal disease, in a country with increasing hospital deaths. These associations should be viewed within the context of culture and local health care systems.

Patterns and predictors of place of cancer death for the oldest old

BACKGROUND

Cancer patients increasingly are among older age groups, but to date little work has examined the trends in cancer among older people, particularly in relation to end of life care and death. This study describes the older population who die of cancer and the factors which may affect their place of death.

METHODS

A Cross-sectional analysis of national data was performed. The study included all people aged 75 and over dying of cancer in England and Wales between 1995 and 1999. The population was divided into exclusive 5 year age cohorts, up to 100 years and over. Descriptive analysis explored demographic characteristics, cancer type and place of death.

RESULTS

Between 1995 and 1999, 315,462 people aged 75 and over were registered as dying from cancer. The number who died increased each year slightly over the 5 year period (1.2%). In the 75-79 age group, 55 % were men, in those aged 100 and over this fell to 16%. On reaching their hundreds, the most common cause of death for men was malignancies of the genital organs; and for women it was breast cancer. The most frequent place of death for women in their hundreds was the care home; for men it was hospitals. Those dying from lymphatic and haematopoietic malignancies were most likely to die in hospitals, those with head and neck malignancies in hospices and breast cancer patients in a care home.

CONCLUSION

The finding of rising proportions of cancer deaths in institutions with increasing age suggests a need to ensure that appropriate high quality care is available to this growing section of the population.

Factors influencing preferences for place of terminal care and of death among cancer patients and their families in Korea

GOALS OF WORK

This study examined cancer patient and family member preferences-and the reasons for the preferences-regarding place of terminal care and of death.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We constructed a questionnaire that included demographic, clinical, and support network data for 371 patients who were treated at any of the seven university hospitals or the National Cancer Center in Korea and 281 of their family members.

MAIN RESULTS

About half of the interviewed patients and half of the family members expressed a preference for the patient being cared for and dying at home. The preference reflected a wish for patients to live out their lives in privacy and to be with their family when their life ended. Those who expressed a preference to be cared for or to die in a hospital wanted to get medical treatment during the last days of life and to relieve their families of the burden of caring for them. Of the variables examined, support network factors and some sociodemographic factors (sex, family members' age, and place of residence) were strongly predictive of preferences.

CONCLUSION

A majority of cancer patients preferred to receive terminal care at home. Cancer patients and family members with strong support groups were more likely to prefer the home as the place of terminal care and dying. Hence, improving support networks might increase the proportion of patients receiving home care and dying at home.

Predicting place of death of elderly cancer patients followed by a palliative care unit

To determine the predictors of death outside the palliative care system for elderly cancer patients who were followed by a palliative care unit (PCU), a retrospective review of 199 charts was performed. Comorbidities, current neoplastic disease (location of tumor, months since diagnosis, number of days of PCU follow-up), symptoms, drug use, and social support were recorded. Place of death was not significantly different among sexes. Factors predicting death in the general hospital for men were digestive comorbidities, vomiting, and weakness. For women, disease of the senses was predictive. Although there were no significant differences with respect to place of death between sexes in an older cancer population followed by a PCU, the factors that predicted which patients will die in the hospital for men were generally related to their medical condition, whereas the predictive factors for women were mainly related to functional dependency and social support. Social support had a trend towards predicting the place of death in women.

Factors associated with home versus institutional death among cancer patients in Connecticut

OBJECTIVE

To assess the relationships between home death and a set of demographic, disease-related, and health-resource factors among individuals who died of cancer.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

All adult deaths from cancer in Connecticut during 1994.

PARTICIPANTS

Six thousand eight hundred and thirteen individuals who met all of the following criteria: died of a cancer-related cause in 1994, had previously been diagnosed with cancer in Connecticut, and were age 18 and older at the time of death.

MEASUREMENT

Site of death.

RESULTS

Twenty-nine percent of the study sample died at home, 42% died in a hospital, 17% died in a nursing home, and 11% died in an inpatient hospice facility. Multivariate analysis indicated that demographic characteristics (being married, female, white, and residing in a higher income area), disease-related factors (type of cancer, longer survival postdiagnosis), and health-resource factors (greater availability of hospice providers, less availability of hospital beds) were associated with dying at home rather than in a hospital or inpatient hospice.

CONCLUSIONS

The implications of this study for clinical practice and health planning are considerable. The findings identify groups (men, unmarried individuals, and those living in lower income areas) at higher risk for institutionalized death-groups that may be targeted for possible interventions to promote home death when home death is preferred by patients and their families. Further, the findings suggest that site of death is influenced by available health-system resources. Thus, if home death is to be supported, the relative availability of hospital beds and hospice providers may be an effective policy tool for promoting home death.

Determinants of place of death for terminal cancer patients

Approximately two-third of cancer patients, when asked about the preferred place of death, wish to die in their own homes. However, the majority of deaths from cancers in most western countries occur in a hospital. When a person dies from other than sudden or traumatic causes, the death appears to be a function of a complex interplay of personal and cultural values and physical and medical factors, as well as various health care systems forces. This article reviews the determinants of place of death for terminal cancer patients from published studies in hopes of shedding light on the difficulties of dying patients to realize their preferences for place of death. These insights may contribute to modification of hospice care systems so health professionals will be more responsive to the needs of their dying patients to retain control and die with dignity and help health professionals achieve the proposed outcome of hospice care.

Place of death correlated to sociodemographic factors. A study of 203 patients dying of cancer in a rural Swedish county in 1990

The purpose of this study was to ascertain where patients with malignant disease died and to establish whether such factors as age, sex, marital status, place of residence, diagnosis and interval between diagnosis and death bore any relation to the place of death. All medical records of 203 patients who died in one particular Swedish county in 1990 of cancers of the GI tract, the urogenital organs, the breast, the skin and the thyroid were analysed. Of all 203 patients, 25 (12%) died at home, 49 (24%) in nursing homes and 129 (64%) in hospital. The proportion of home deaths was significantly smaller when the interval from diagnosis to death was less than one month. Death in a nursing home, compared with death in a hospital, was more usual among patients older than 80 years, among those living more than 40 km from the hospital and among those from areas where the local health care centre had a nursing home attached.

Trends in the terminal care of cancer patients: South Australia, 1981-1990

BACKGROUND

The increasing numbers of cancer patients, the high costs of terminal care, and the development of palliative care services have led to a growing interest in patterns of terminal cancer care. These patterns are relevant to the formulation and evaluation of health services policy.

AIMS

To investigate trends in the place of death of South Australian cancer patients between 1981 and 1990, and to examine associations of socio-demographic and clinical variables with the place of death.

METHODS

Data relating to 2715 deaths attributed to cancer in 1990 were extracted from the Central Cancer Registry. To assess trends, these data were directly standardised to the age-sex distribution of cancer deaths in 1981 and 1985 which were investigated in a previous study. Unconditional logistic regression was used to investigate predictors of place of death.

RESULTS

The proportion of deaths which occurred in major metropolitan public hospitals decreased from 40% in 1981 to 28% in 1990. Conversely, the proportion which occurred in hospice units increased from 5% to 20% over the same period. There was a decline in the proportion of deaths which occurred in private hospitals, but there was no significant change in the proportion which occurred in country hospitals or nursing homes. The proportion of deaths at home remained around 14%. Associated with place of death were age, sex, type of malignancy, survival time from diagnosis to death, Aboriginality, and area of residence. Further research to assess the clinical appropriateness of terminal care patterns is suggested.

Palliative home care and place of death among cancer patients: a population-based study

This population-based study of all cancer deaths (n = 12,343) occurring in Genoa, Italy, from 1986 to 1990 investigated the relation between place of death and age, sex, marital status, education, cancer site and provision of palliative home care (PHC). The proportion of home deaths significantly increased from 27.9% (1986) to 33.0% (1990) and was twice as frequent among PHC users (60.8%) than among nonusers (29.3%). The number of patients dying of cancer who received PHC increased from 41 in 1986 (1.6% of cancer deaths) to 191 in 1990 (8.0% of cancer deaths). PHC users, when compared to nonusers were younger, more frequently married, had a higher level of education and were more frequently affected by cancers of the lung, breast or prostate. Multivariate analysis shows that the probability of home death increased with increasing age and education level and was higher in females and in married patients. The provision of PHC was the strongest predictor of home death (OR = 4.00; 95% CI = 3.33-4.81), while the temporal trend almost disappeared. These results suggest that most of the increase in home deaths from 1986 to 1990 is attributable to the PHC and that expansion of the PHC services may enable about 60% of cancer patients to die at home. These results appear to be desirable from the individual patient's viewpoint and in a public health perspective.

Characteristics of clients referred to home, hospice and hospital palliative care services in Western Australia

Perth, in Western Australia, has three major palliative care services: a home care service, a freestanding hospice and a purpose-built palliative care unit in a teaching hospital. A retrospective study of patients referred to these services over a six-month period was carried out to find how they were used. The records of 176 clients were compared, which showed that there were some differences between the client groups referred to each of the services. Those referred to the inpatient services were older (F = 0.0031), less likely to have a carer available (chi 2 = 18.62, p < 0.5) and needed more nursing care. Lung cancer accounted for more male admissions (29%) to all services, while breast and lung cancer were more common among women, with a mixed pattern of referral. Lack of private insurance did not seem to influence the choice of service. Overall the clients of the inpatient services were older, had more nursing needs and were less likely to have someone to care for them, characteristics which health services facing an ageing population need to consider.

Where people die in Victoria

OBJECTIVE

To describe where deaths occur in Victoria and to determine to what extent the probability of dying in certain institutions is associated with cause of death and sociodemographic variables.

DESIGN

Descriptive study of death certificates and multivariate analysis of 7697 deaths that occurred in a three-month period in 1988.

SETTING

The State of Victoria.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Cause of death, age, sex, marital status, and socioeconomic status.

RESULTS

Most deaths occurred in public hospitals (48%) followed by private homes (21%), nursing homes (14%) and private hospitals (9%). Only 2% of all deaths (90% from cancer) occurred in hospices. Women were more likely to die in a nursing home than were men (21% v. 8%) and less likely to die at home (17% v. 24%). The proportion of deaths increased with age in nursing homes and declined in private homes. Significant predictors of death in a public hospital were age and socioeconomic status; the probability diminished with increasing age and was lower for those in the upper third for socioeconomic status. Predictors for dying in a private home were age and marital status; the probability diminished with age and in the absence of a spouse.

CONCLUSIONS

Death as a hospice inpatient is comparatively rare in Victoria and the impact of hospice outpatient or domiciliary care on dying at home has yet to be established. Should death at home become a preferred option, the presence and ability of a spouse or other caregiver will be a significant factor.

Frequency of intermediate admissions and place of death of patients with advanced colorectal cancer

An analysis was made of the place of death and the degree of institutional support required following surgery in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) who had distant metastases. There was a high incidence of intermediate admissions to an acute hospital, and most patients died in an acute hospital bed. The number of readmissions and the place of death were not influenced by the patients' age, sex, site of tumour or their home situation at the time of diagnosis. In view of the high demand for acute surgical beds, there is a need to develop more appropriate facilities to care for patients in the terminal phase of this disease.

Where patients with cancer die in South Australia

In a sample of 1582 deaths among South Australian patients with cancer (795 deaths in 1981 and 787 deaths in 1985), 67% of deaths occurred in a hospital, 9% of deaths in a hospice, 10% of deaths in a nursing home, and 14% of deaths in a private residence. More patients died in a hospice or nursing home in 1985 than in 1981, and fewer died in a hospital. With increasing age, fewer patients died in a hospital and more in a nursing home. Compared with men, women were less likely to die at a private residence and more likely to die in a nursing home. A greater proportion of men with a living wife died at a private residence than was so among single or widowed men. However, conjugal status was not associated with the place of death of women. Patients who lived in the more affluent metropolitan suburbs tended more to die at a private residence than did those from poorer suburbs or country areas. Patients with haematological malignancies died in major metropolitan public hospitals more frequently than did patients with other tumours. Possible explanations are given for these findings.

Stopping long-term dialysis. An empirical study of withdrawal of life-supporting treatment

Dialysis was discontinued in 155 (9 percent) of 1766 patients being treated for end-stage renal disease, accounting for 22 percent of all deaths. Treatment was withdrawn more frequently in older than in younger non-diabetic patients, and more often in young diabetic patients than in young nondiabetic patients. Withdrawal was twice as common in nondiabetic patients with other degenerative disorders (P less than 0.005); in patients receiving intermittent peritoneal dialysis (P less than 0.025); and in patients living in nursing homes (P less than 0.025). Half the patients were competent when the decision to withdraw was made, and 39 percent of this group had no new preceding medical complications. Among incompetent patients, the physician initiated the decision for withdrawal in 73 percent, and the patient's family in 27 percent; all patients had recent medical complications. In the early 1970s the physician initiated the decision in 66 percent of all patients; in the early 1980s this figure had decreased to 30 percent (P less than 0.0005). We conclude that stopping treatment is a common mode of death in patients receiving long-term dialysis, particularly in those who are old and those who have complicating degenerative diseases. Because of the increasing age of patients on dialysis, withdrawal of treatment will probably become more common in the future.

The need for palliative care services in a general hospital

A population census in a major Sydney teaching hospital showed that, at any one time, between 5% and 10% of inpatients were in the terminal stages of their disease and, thus, were in need of palliative care. These needs challenge conventional patterns of practice in large hospitals and illustrate the magnitude of the problems arising from the generally observed trend towards hospitalization of the dying.