Table 1.
Characteristics of patients admitted to the Queen Elizabeth II Palliative Care Program between Jan 1, 1998 and Dec 31, 2002 and died during the same period
| Characteristic | Number of patients* (%) |
| Sex | |
| Female | 1925 (48.5) |
| Male | 2047 (51.5) |
| Age, years | |
| < 60 | 992 (25.1) |
| 60–69 | 873 (22.1) |
| 70–79 | 1208 (30.6) |
| ≥ 80 | 878 (22.2) |
| Year of admission to PCP | |
| 1998 | 883 (22.2) |
| 1999 | 824 (20.8) |
| 2000 | 876 (22.1) |
| 2001 | 771 (19.4) |
| 2002 | 618 (15.6) |
| Year of death | |
| 1998 | 645 (16.2) |
| 1999 | 820 (20.7) |
| 2000 | 858 (21.6) |
| 2001 | 824 (20.8) |
| 2002 | 824 (20.8) |
| Survival (days) | |
| 0–30 | 1605 (40.4) |
| 31–60 | 723 (18.2) |
| 61–90 | 432 (10.9) |
| 91–120 | 251 (6.3) |
| 121+ | 960 (24.2) |
| Location of death | |
| Hospital death (not in PCP unit) | 2009 (50.6) |
| Inpatient PCP unit | 635 (16.0) |
| Home | 1218 (30.7) |
| Long-term care facility | 110 (2.8) |
| Diagnoses, summarized | |
| Lung cancer | 1025 (26.1) |
| All other cancers | 2525 (64.3) |
| Other disease, no cancer | 375 (9.6) |
| Caregiver relationship | |
| Spouse | 2165 (57.8) |
| Child | 1017 (27.2) |
| Parents / other relations | 448 (12.0) |
| Other | 116 (3.1) |
| Primary reasons for referral to PCP | |
| (responses are not exclusive) | |
| Pain | 1630 (41.0) |
| Other symptoms | 1868 (47.0) 1729 (43.5) |
| Patient support | 1729 (43.5) |
| Family support | 1620 (40.8) |
| Staff support | 317 (8.0) |
| Home consultation | 1067 (26.9) |
| Terminal care | 345 (8.7) |
| Respite care | 5 (0.1) |
| Grief | 19 (0.5) |
* N = 3,972. Smaller n by characteristic due to missing values.