Table 4.

Use of Life-Sustaining Interventions in the Last 6 Months of Life by Racial/Ethnic Group

	White	Black	Hispanic	Other	All
	Percentage of column with any such utilization at the end of life
ICU	27.0	32.5	39.6	30.6	27.5
Resuscitation & cardiac conversion	2.7	4.4	4.0	3.6	2.8
Ventilation	11.6	18.0	21.0	16.6	12.1
Gastrostomy	4.1	10.5	9.1	6.6	4.5
Vascular transfusion	10.4	16.6	18.0	13.7	10.9
Dialysis	1.2	2.7	3.4	2.9	1.3
Chemotherapy	7.9	7.6	7.4	6.8	7.9
Cardiac Catheterization	3.4	2.6	4.6	3.0	3.4
Heart assist/balloon	0.6	0.3	0.8	0.6*	0.5
PAP & wedge	1.3	1.1	1.7	1.5*	1.3
Antibiotic	0.9	1.2	1.6	1.9	1.0
Hospice enrollment, last 6 months	25.9	20.1	22.9	20.3	25.5

Notes:

1. All White / non-White differences in utilization rates, except those starred (*), are statistically significant (p < 0.05).

2. ‘All’ column denotes rates for all Medicare decedents (in 2001), obtained by adjusting for stratified sampling.