Table 1.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of deceased cancer patients treated at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital Palliative Care Centre, May 2016-September 2017, by severity of home caregiver’s self-reported difficulty with caring for the patient at the end of life
| High Caregiver Difficulty* (n=62) |
Low Caregiver Difficulty* (n=112) |
All Caregivers (n=174) |
p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patients | Mean in Years (SD) | |||
| Age | 56.1 (12.6) | 57.6 (13.9) | 57.1 (13.5) | 0.47** |
| N (%)# |
||||
| Patient gender | ||||
| Female | 23 (37.1) | 71 (63.4) | 94 (54.0) | 0.001† |
| Male | 39 (62.9) | 41 (36.6) | 80 (46.0) | |
| Race (self-identified) | ||||
| Black | 56 (90.3) | 100 (89.3) | 156 (89.7) | 0.55† |
| Coloured | 5 (8.1) | 8 (7.1) | 13 (7.5) | |
| Indian | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.9) | 1 (0.6) | |
| White | 1 (1.6) | 2 (1.8) | 3 (1.7) | |
| Other | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.9) | 1 (0.6) | |
| Marital status | ||||
| Married/Partnered | 29 (46.8) | 43 (38.4) | 72 (41.4) | 0.34† |
| Single/Separated/Divorced/Widowed | 33 (53.2) | 69 (61.6) | 102 (58.6) | |
| Employment status | ||||
| Employed (formal or informal) | 9 (14.5) | 16 (14.3) | 25 (14.4) | 1.00† |
| Unemployed | 53 (85.5) | 96 (85.7) | 149 (85.6) | |
| Education (Highest level attained) | ||||
| No formal education | 2 (3.2) | 9 (8.0) | 11 (6.3) | 0.17† |
| Primary school | 11 (17.7) | 31 (27.7) | 42 (24.1) | |
| High school | 44 (71.0) | 58 (51.8) | 102 (58.6) | |
| Technical school | 3 (4.8) | 6 (5.4) | 9 (5.2) | |
| Graduate/Professional school | 2 (3.2) | 8 (7.1) | 10 (5.8) | |
| Socioeconomic Status | ||||
| >75th percentile | 15 (24.2) | 28 (25.0) | 43 (24.7) | 0.047† |
| 51–75th percentile | 9 (14.5) | 35 (31.3) | 44 (25.3) | |
| 26–50th percentile | 17 (27.4) | 27 (24.1) | 44 (25.3) | |
| ≤25th percentile | 21 (33.9) | 22 (19.6) | 43 (24.7) | |
| Malignancy | ||||
| Breast | 7 (11.3) | 40 (35.7) | 47 (27.0) | 0.03† |
| Lung | 21 (33.9) | 30 (26.8) | 51 (29.3) | |
| Colorectal | 8 (12.9) | 8 (7.1) | 16 (9.2) | |
| Hepatobiliary | 7 (11.3) | 11 (9.8) | 18 (10.3) | |
| Gastric / Gastroesophageal Junction | 6 (9.7) | 9 (8.0) | 15 (8.6) | |
| Pancreatic | 9 (14.5) | 7 (6.3) | 16 (9.2) | |
| Sarcoma | 2 (3.2) | 2 (1.8) | 4 (2.3) | |
| Esophageal | 1 (1.6) | 2 (1.8) | 3 (1.7) | |
| Anal | 1 (1.6) | 1 (0.9) | 2 (1.2) | |
| Other | 0 (0.0) | 2 (1.8) | 2 (1.2) | |
| Comorbidities | ||||
| HIV Infection | 10 (16.1) | 28 (25.0) | 38 (21.8) | 0.19† |
| Diabetes | 5 (8.1) | 11 (9.8) | 16 (9.2) | 0.79† |
| Hypertension | 25 (40.3) | 41 (36.6) | 66 (37.9) | 0.63† |
| Heart Disease/CVA | 2 (3.2) | 4 (3.6) | 6 (3.5) | 1.00† |
| Asthma/COPD | 3 (4.8) | 4 (3.6) | 7 (4.0) | 0.70† |
| Arthritis | 2 (3.2) | 5 (4.5) | 7 (4.0) | 1.00† |
| Baseline performance status (ECOG) | ||||
| 0–2 | 52 (83.9) | 78 (69.6) | 130 (74.7) | 0.046 |
| 3–4 | 10 (16.1) | 34 (30.4) | 44 (25.3) | |
| Caregiver’s | ||||
| N (%)# |
||||
| Gender | ||||
| Male | 6 (9.7) | 41 (36.6) | 47 (27.0) | <0.0001† |
| Female | 56 (90.32) | 71 (63.4) | 127 (73.0) | |
| Relationship to patient | ||||
| Spouse/Partner | 25 (41.0) | 34 (30.6) | 59 (34.3) | 0.09† |
| Child of patient | 13 (21.3) | 46 (41.4) | 59 (34.3) | |
| Sibling | 11 (17.7) | 12 (10.7) | 23 (13.4) | |
| Parent of patient | 7 (11.5) | 7 (6.3) | 14 (8.1) | |
| Extended family | 4 (6.7) | 9 (8.1) | 13 (7.6) | |
| Non-family | 1 (1.6) | 3 (2.7) | 4 (2.3) | |
| Unknown/Missing | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
*
The “High Difficulty” group corresponds to caregivers who responded “A lot” to question of extent to which “caring for the patient was challenging,” and the “Low Difficulty” group represents the caregivers who respond “A little” or “Not at all” to the same question.
**
P-value from pooled standard error test
#
Column percentages
†
P-value from Fisher’s exact test