Table 2.
Patient and care characteristics associated with involvement of palliative care and pain specialists in the last month of life
| Palliative care and pain specialist involvement | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % (column) | % (row) | Univariate logistic regression OR (95 % CI) | Multivariate logistic regression OR (95 % CI) | ||
| Overall | 5062 | 14.0 | |||
| Age | |||||
| 0–64 | 1312 | 16.0 | 26.3 | 4.50 (3.66–5.54) | 2.28 (1.79–2.89) |
| 64–79 | 1663 | 30.2 | 19.5 | 3.06 (2.55–3.68) | 1.91 (1.55–2.36) |
| >80 (ref) | 2087 | 53.8 | 7.3 | 1 | 1 |
| Sex | |||||
| Female | 2518 | 53.5 | 12.4 | 0.76 (0.65–0.89) | 0.96 (0.81–1.15) |
| Male (ref) | 2544 | 46.5 | 15.7 | 1 | 1 |
| Cause of death | |||||
| Cardiovascular disease | 543 | 16.5 | 6.0 | 1.07 (0.78–1.48) | 1.05 (0.75–1.49) |
| Cancer | 2925 | 37.2 | 27.9 | 6.54 (5.37–7.95) | 2.58 (2.03–3.28) |
| Other or unknown (ref) | 1594 | 46.3 | 5.6 | 1 | 1 |
| Dementia | |||||
| Yes | 739 | 23.0 | 4.0 | 0.20 (0.15–0.27) | 0.39 (0.27–0.55) |
| No (ref) | 4104 | 77.0 | 17.2 | 1 | 1 |
| Place of death | |||||
| Home and residential home | 2663 | 42.8 | 20.0 | 2.53 (2.07–3.10) | 1.29 (1.01–1.66) |
| Nursing home | 1122 | 28.5 | 9.8 | 1.11 (0.87–1.41) | 1.40 (1.04–1.89) |
| Hospital (ref) | 1277 | 28.7 | 9.0 | 1 | 1 |
| Hospitalization in the last month of life? | |||||
| Yes | 1815 | 35.5 | 17.0 | 1.43 (1.22–1.67) | 1.28 (1.06–1.53) |
| No (ref) | 3027 | 64.5 | 12.5 | 1 | 1 |
| Was care prior to death aimed at palliation? | |||||
| Yes, during the last weeks/months of life | 2626 | 47.9 | 20.7 | 5.74 (4.42–7.46) | 3.98 (2.93–5.41) |
| Yes, during the last days of life | 892 | 21.4 | 14.2 | 3.65 (2.72–4.91) | 3.11 (2.26–4.27) |
| No, or only in the last hours of life | 1136 | 30.7 | 4.3 | 1 | 1 |
All percentages are weighted for sampling fractions, non-response and random sampling deviations, to make them representative for all deaths in the year studied
ref reference category, OR (95 % CI) odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals