Table 2.
Quality of End-of-Life Care Indicators (N=816)
| Patient Characteristics | Solid tumors N=703(%)1 |
Hematologic malignancies N=113(%)1 |
P-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Within last 30 days of life | |||
| Any ER visit | 300 (43) | 61 (54) | 0.03 |
| 2 or more ER visits2 | 83 (12) | 17 (15) | 0.35 |
| Any hospital admission | 333 (47) | 91 (81) | <0.001 |
| 2 or more hospital admissions2 | 73 (10) | 26 (23) | <0.001 |
| More than 14 days of hospitalization2 | 54 (8) | 43 (38) | <0.001 |
| Hospital death2 | 110 (16) | 53 (47) | <0.001 |
| ICU admission2 | 55 (8) | 44 (39) | <0.001 |
| Intensive care unit death | 30 (4) | 37 (33) | <0.001 |
| Chemotherapy use2 | 98 (14) | 49 (43) | <0.001 |
| Targeted therapy use | 78 (11) | 38 (34) | <0.001 |
| Chemotherapy and targeted agent use | 160 (23) | 60 (53) | <0.001 |
| Palliative care unit admission | 116 (17) | 9 (8) | 0.02 |
| Within last 14 days of life | |||
| Chemotherapy use | 40 (6) | 24 (21) | <0.001 |
| Targeted therapy use | 37 (5) | 19 (17) | <0.001 |
| Chemotherapy and targeted agent use | 70 (10) | 32 (28) | <0.001 |
| Aggressive of end-of-life care score | |||
| 0 | 457 (65) | 25 (22) | <0.001 |
| 1 | 119 (17) | 26 (23) | |
| 2 | 58 (8) | 14 (12) | |
| 3 | 44 (6) | 21 (19) | |
| 4 | 16 (2) | 20 (18) | |
| 5 | 8 (1) | 5 (4) | |
| 6 | 1 (0) | 2 (2) | |
| Median score (IQR) | 0 (0–1) | 2 (1–3) | <0.001 |
| Any palliative care consultation | 329 (47) | 37 (33) | 0.006 |
| Outpatient palliative care consultation (among patient seen by palliative care) | 159 (48) | 8 (22) | 0.003 |
| Months between advanced cancer diagnosis and palliative care consultation | 10.7 (3.9–22.1) | 15.6 (4.4–43.4) | 0.06 |
| Months between palliative care consultation and death | 1.7 (0.6–4.6) | 0.4 (0.1–1.2) | <0.001 |
1
column percentage unless otherwise specified
2
six factors were included in a composite score for aggressiveness of end-of-life care used in a previous study10
Abbreviations: ER, emergency room; ICU, intensive care unit; IQR, interquartile range