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. 2019 Apr 24;7(2):E306–E315. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20180097

Table 1:

Demographic characteristics of Ontario decedents, Apr. 1, 2004, to Mar. 31, 2015 (fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2014)

Characteristic Location of death; % of decedents* Standardized difference
All locations
n = 962 462
In hospital
n = 433 074
Out of hospital
n = 529 388
Age at death, yr, mean ± SD 76.3 ± 14.8 75.8 ± 13.5 76.6 ± 15.8 0.06
Age category at death, yr
 18–49 5.8 4.6 6.8 0.10
 50–54 3.4 3.3 3.5 0.01
 55–59 4.7 4.7 4.6 0.01
 60–64 6.0 6.4 5.6 0.03
 65–69 7.4 8.3 6.6 0.07
 70–74 9.5 11.0 8.3 0.09
 75–79 12.8 14.7 11.4 0.10
 80–84 16.6 17.9 15.6 0.06
 ≥ 85 33.7 28.9 37.6 0.18
Sex, female 50.1 48.0 51.9 0.08
Charlson Comorbidity Index score
 0 14.1 6.5 20.4 0.42
 1 13.9 14.3 13.5 0.02
 ≥ 2 61.7 79.2 47.3 0.70
 Missing 10.3 0 18.7 NA
Income quintile§
 1 (lowest) 23.5 23.8 23.3 0.02
 2 21.1 21.9 20.4 0.04
 3 19.1 19.2 19.0 0
 4 18.5 18.2 18.8 0.02
 5 (highest) 17.8 16.9 18.5 0.04
Rural residence§ 14.8 15.3 14.5 0.02
Chronic conditions
 Cancer 20.3 24.4 17.0 0.18
 Congestive heart failure 11.5 15.6 8.1 0.23
 Dementia 9.0 6.9 10.8 0.14
 COPD 5.1 6.9 3.6 0.15
 Coronary artery disease 4.7 6.1 3.6 0.11
 Renal failure 3.0 4.1 2.1 0.12
 Severe liver disease 1.5 2.5 0.7 0.14
 Peripheral vascular disease 1.0 1.5 0.6 0.09
 Diabetes with end-organ damage 0.1 0.1 0.1 0
 None 43.8 32.1 53.3 0.44
Cause of death (top 20)
 Ischemic heart disease 13.6 9.9 16.7 0.20
 Cancer
  Lung 6.2 7.1 5.5 0.06
  Colorectal 3.0 3.0 2.9 0.01
  Hematologic 2.5 3.5 1.6 0.12
  Breast 1.8 1.8 1.8 0
  Prostate 1.4 1.2 1.5 0.02
  Pancreas 1.4 1.4 1.4 0
 Dementia and Alzheimer disease 5.9 2.5 8.7 0.27
 Cerebrovascular disease 5.1 6.0 4.3 0.08
 Chronic lower respiratory disease 3.5 4.1 3.0 0.06
 Diabetes mellitus 2.8 2.2 3.4 0.07
 Influenza and pneumonia 2.2 3.0 1.5 0.10
 Diseases of urinary system 2.0 2.8 1.3 0.11
 Falls 1.6 2.4 1.0 0.11
 Heart failure and complications 1.6 1.7 1.5 0.02
 Cirrhosis and other liver disease 1.2 1.9 0.7 0.11
 Hypertensive disease 1.0 0.6 1.4 0.08
 Intentional self-harm 1.0 0.2 1.6 0.16
 Cardiac arrhythmias 1.0 1.2 0.8 0.04
 Sepsis 0.9 1.6 0.3 0.13

Note: COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, NA = not applicable, SD = standard deviation.

*

Except where indicated otherwise.

Out-of-hospital deaths occurred in the home (n = 389 250), in long-term care facilities (n = 77 280) and in other locations (n = 62 858).

Standardized differences for comparisons by location of death, where a difference less than 0.1 is commonly deemed to indicate negligible differences between groups.

§

Information on income and location of residence was missing for 0.5% (5213) and 0.1% (617) of decedents, respectively.