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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Pain Symptom Manage. 2023 Feb 9;65(6):e715–e743. doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2023.02.003

Table 2.

Subset Meta-analyses by Study Outcomes

Outcome
Subset
(Model)		 (n)
I2 		Publication
Bias Tests		 Effect
Sizes
(k)		 LOR SE z 95% CI OR 95% CI
LB UB LB UB p
Aggressive End-of-life Care Outcomes
Chemotherapy (FE) (3,169) EG: p = .018
BM: p = .136		 7 −0.32 0.12 −2.71 −0.55 −0.09 0.72 0.57 0.92 .007
ICU Admission (FE) (17,875) EG: p = .976
BM: p = .562		 7 −0.34 0.05 −6.38 −0.44 −0.23 0.71 0.64 0.79 <.001
Hospital Admission (RE) (20,772)
I2 = 61.5%		 EG: p = 1.00
BM: p = .787		 6 −0.60 0.13 −4.70 −0.85 −0.35 0.55 0.43 0.70 <.001
Hospice Use < 7 days (RE) (2,811)
I2 = 68.1%		 EG: p = .022
BM: p = .083		 5 −0.51 0.24 −2.15 −0.97 −0.04 0.60 0.38 0.96 .032
CPR (FE) (4,491) EG: p = .107
BM: p = .483		 5 −0.27 0.20 −1.39 −0.66 0.11 0.76 0.52 1.12 .164
Hospital Death (RE) (17,335)
I2 = 98.4%		 EG: p = .057
BM: p = .750		 4 −0.74 0.32 −2.30 −1.38 −0.11 0.48 0.25 0.89 .021
Mechanical Ventilation (RE) (3,370)
I2 = 76.6%		 EG: p = .163
BM: p = 1.00		 4 −0.27 0.31 −0.89 −0.88 0.33 0.76 0.42 1.39 .375
ED Admission (FE) (18,107) EG: p = .662
BM: p = .750		 4 −0.20 0.24 −0.82 −0.66 0.27 0.82 0.52 1.31 .410
Aggressive Interventionsa (FE) (3,994) EG: p = .762
BM: p = .750		 4 −0.53 0.13 −4.14 −0.77 −0.28 0.59 0.46 0.76 <.001
Comfort-focused End-of-life Care Outcomes
Hospice Use (RE) (2,511)
I2 = 63.1%		 EG: p = .786
BM: p = .483		 5 0.27 0.20 1.33 −0.13 0.67 1.31 0.88 1.95 .185
DNR Order (RE) (3,837)
I2 = 62.7%		 EG: p = .497
BM: p = .817		 5 0.41 0.21 1.98 0.003 0.83 1.51 1.00 2.28 .048
a

Indicates varying composite measures of aggressive end-of-life care indicators across studies, including combinations of chemotherapy in the last 14 days of life, acute care in the last 30 days of life, ICU care in the last 30 days of life, and/or intensive interventions (e.g., mechanical ventilation, CPR, hemodialysis, gastric tube placement) within the last 30 days of life.

Abbreviations: BM is Begg and Mazumdar’s rank correlation test of funnel plot asymmetry; CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation, DNR is do-not-resuscitate, ED is emergency department, EG is Eggers regression test of funnel plot asymmetry; FE is fixed effects model, ICU is intensive care unit, RE is random effects model

Note: I2 values indicate the estimated amount of between study variation (i.e., heterogeneity) under the random effects RE models