Table 1.
Decedent and Respondent Demographic Characteristics
| Characteristic | n (%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Without Hospice n = 278 |
Received Hospice “At the Right Time” n = 208 |
Received Hospice “Too Late” n = 33 |
|
| Site of death | |||
| Hospital | 67 (24.1) | 26 (12.5) | 3 (9.1) |
| Nursing home | 208 (74.8) | 146 (70.2) | 26 (78.8) |
| Assisted living facility | 3 (1.1) | 23 (11.1) | 2 (6.1) |
| Inpatient hospice facility | 0 (0.0) | 13 (6.2) | 2 (6.1) |
| Decedent ethnicity | |||
| Non-Hispanic white | 222 (80.1) | 174 (83.6) | 28 (84.9) |
| Non-Hispanic black | 35 (12.6) | 16 (7.7) | 1 (3.0) |
| Hispanic | 12 (4.3) | 15 (7.2) | 3 (9.1) |
| Other | 8 (2.9) | 4 (1.8) | 1 (3.0) |
| Respondent sex | |||
| Male | 97 (35.0) | 71 (34.1) | 5 (15.2) |
| Female | 180 (65.0) | 137 (65.9) | 28 (84.9) |
| Respondent relationship to decedent | |||
| Spouse | 29 (10.4) | 24 (11.4) | 4 (12.1) |
| Child | 168 (60.4) | 133 (64.0) | 23 (69.7) |
| Sibling | 11 (4.0) | 3 (1.4) | 0 (0.0) |
| Other relative | 65 (23.4) | 45 (21.6) | 6 (18.2) |
| Other | 5 (1.8) | 3 (1.4) | 0 (0.0) |
| Respondent education | |||
| <High school | 16 (5.8) | 10 (4.8) | 1 (3.1) |
| High school graduate | 70 (25.4) | 43 (20.8) | 6 (18.8) |
| Some college | 94 (34.1) | 59 (28.5) | 14 (43.8) |
| 4-year college graduate | 38 (13.8) | 45 (21.7) | 4 (12.5) |
| >4-year college | 58 (21.0) | 50 (24.2) | 7 (21.9) |
Results are presented only for family members who stated that the decedent did not receive hospice services, received hospice services at the right time, or received hospice services too late. The four persons who stated that hospice was referred “too early” and the 15 who did not answer the question about the timing of hospice services were not reported in this table.