Table 1.
Patient Characteristics at Time of Death in Overall 2010 to 2014 Cohort, As Well As Stratified by Patients Receiving/Not Receiving at Least One Home Care Palliative Care Visit in the Last Year of Life With Associate Standardized Differences.
| Characteristic | Total |
At least one home care palliative service in last 365 days of life |
No home care palliative service in last 365 days of life |
Standardized differencea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | % | |
| Total chronic dialysis patients | 9611 (100.0) | 1258 (13.1) | 8353 (87.0) | — |
| Age | ||||
| Median (25th-75th percentiles) | 75.0 (66.0-82.0) | 77.0 (68.0-83.0) | 75.0 (65.0-82.0) | 14.3 |
| Women | 3898 (40.6) | 503 (40.0) | 3395 (40.6) | 1.3 |
| Rural residenceb | 1101 (11.5) | 182 (14.5) | 919 (11.0) | 10.4 |
| Income quintilesc | ||||
| 1 (lowest) | 2369 (24.7) | 268 (21.3) | 2101 (25.2) | 9.1 |
| 2 | 2137 (22.2) | 238 (18.9) | 1899 (22.7) | 9.4 |
| 3 | 1823 (19.0) | 247 (19.6) | 1576 (18.9) | 2.0 |
| 4 | 1771 (18.4) | 255 (20.3) | 1516 (18.2) | 5.4 |
| 5 (highest) | 1511 (15.7) | 250 (19.9) | 1261 (15.1) | 12.6 |
| Johns Hopkins Expanded Diagnosis Clusters | ||||
| Cerebrovascular disease | 2538 (26.4) | 293 (23.3) | 2245 (26.9) | 8.3 |
| Congestive heart failure | 5331 (55.5) | 637 (50.6) | 4694 (56.2) | 11.2 |
| Dementia & delirium | 2848 (29.6) | 360 (28.6) | 2488 (29.8) | 2.6 |
| Ischemic heart disease | 5319 (55.3) | 620 (49.3) | 4699 (56.3) | 14.0 |
| High impact malignant neoplasmsd | 1337 (13.9) | 500 (39.8) | 837 (10.0) | 73.2 |
| Low impact malignant neoplasmsd | 1284 (13.4) | 357 (28.4) | 927 (11.1) | 44.5 |
| Peripheral vascular disease | 2394 (24.9) | 244 (19.4) | 2150 (25.7) | 15.2 |
| Diabetes | 6242 (65.0) | 721 (57.3) | 5521 (66.1) | 18.1 |
| John Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Group comorbidity score | ||||
| Median (25th-75th percentiles) | 14.0 (12.0-16.0) | 15.0 (12.0-17.0) | 14.0 (11.0-16.0) | 18.6 |
| Comorbidities 2 years from deathe: | ||||
| Immobilityf | 75 (0.8) | 12 (1.0) | 63 (0.8) | 2.2 |
| Lower leg amputation | 694 (7.2) | 54 (4.3) | 640 (7.7) | 14.2 |
| Myocardial infarction | 2239 (23.3) | 191 (15.2) | 2048 (24.5) | 23.6 |
| Gastrointestinal hemorrhage | 1000 (10.4) | 127 (10.1) | 873 (10.5) | 1.2 |
| Time on chronic dialysis (years) | ||||
| Median (25th-75th percentiles) | 3.0 (1.0-6.0) | 2.0 (1.0-5.0) | 3.0 (1.0-6.0) | 13.6 |
| Cause of end-stage renal disease | ||||
| Diabetes | 1581 (16.5) | 119 (9.5) | 1462 (17.5) | 23.7 |
| Vascular disease | 981 (10.2) | 131 (10.4) | 850 (10.2) | 0.8 |
| Glomerulonephritis | 425 (4.4) | 48 (3.8) | 377 (4.5) | 3.5 |
| Other | 266 (2.8) | 43 (3.4) | 223 (2.7) | 4.4 |
| Polycystic kidney disease | 120 (1.3) | 15 (1.2) | 105 (1.3) | 0.3 |
| Obstruction | 95 (1.0) | 11 (1.6) | 84 (1.0) | 1.4 |
| Missing | 6113 (63.6) | 886 (70.4) | 5227 (62.6) | 16.7 |
| Initial dialysis modality | ||||
| In-centre hemodialysis | 7151 (74.4) | 949 (75.4) | 6202 (74.3) | 2.7 |
| Peritoneal dialysis | ⩾806 (⩾8.4)g | ⩾77 (⩾6.1)g | 729 (8.7) | 10.0h |
| Home hemodialysis | ⩽17 (⩽0.2)g | ⩽5 (⩽0.4)g | 12 (0.1) | 0.5h |
| Missing | 1637 (17.0) | 227 (18.0) | 1410 (16.9) | 3.1 |
| Final dialysis modality | ||||
| In-centre hemodialysis | 7597 (79.0) | 983 (78.1) | 6614 (79.2) | 2.5 |
| Peritoneal dialysis | 477 (5.0) | 81 (6.4) | 396 (4.7) | 7.4 |
| Home hemodialysis | 49 (0.5) | 10 (0.8) | 39 (0.5) | 4.1 |
| Missing | 1344 (14.0) | 170 (13.5) | 1174 (14.1) | 1.6 |
| Kidney transplant recipient | 381 (4.0) | 47 (3.7) | 334 (4.0) | 1.4 |
Note. EDCs = Johns Hopkins Extended Diagnosis ClustersTM; CIHI-DAD = Canadian Institute for Health Information Discharge Abstract Database; ACG = Adjusted Clinical Group®; ESRD = end-stage renal disease; LTC = long-term care.
Standardized differences (SD) are less sensitive to sample size than traditional hypothesis tests. They provide a measure of the difference between groups divided by the pooled SD; a value greater than 10% is interpreted as a meaningful difference between groups. Some cell values were suppressed for the purposes of privacy and confidentiality.
Rural was defined as population < 10 000.
Income was categorized into fifths of average neighborhood income on death date. Income Quintile category 3 includes the missing values.
Malignant neoplasm categories were defined using Johns Hopkins Expanded Diagnosis Clusters (EDC), which are based on proprietary ICD codes.
Comorbidities were assessed by administrative database codes or by EDC in the previous 2 years from death
Immobility was defined using ICD-10 codes in CIHI-DAD: “R263,” “R2681,” “Z740.”
Number have been altered to suppress small cells.
Standardized difference has been changed to accommodate suppressed cells.