Table 2.
Characteristics of identified palliative patients and palliative care they received
| Patients of trained GPs (n=46) | Patients of untrained GPs (n=73) | P Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of identified patients median (min-max) | 3 (2–8) | 2 (1–7) | 0.046 |
| Age in years median (min-max) | 74.5 (39–96) | 70 (10–98) | 0.064 |
| Male gender* n (%) | 20 (43.5) | 35 (54.7) | 0.544 |
| Missing | 5 | 9 | |
| Primary diagnosis* n (%) | 0.630 | ||
| Cancer | 34 (75.6) | 58 (79.5) | |
| COPD | 2 (4.4) | 1 (1.4) | |
| CHF | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | |
| Other† | 9 (20) | 14 (19.2) | |
| Expected lifetime weeks median (min-max) | 16 (2–100) | 20 (1–82) | 0.728 |
| Expected remaining lifetime ≥4 weeks* n (%) | 43 (93.5) | 47 (64.4) | 0.062 |
| Missing<s> expected life time n (%) | 3 (7) | 14 (19) | |
| Current monthly contact frequency median (min-max) | 4 (0–24) | 2 (1–36) | 0.690 |
| Contact(s) per patient with own GP last month ≥1 monthly n (%) | |||
| By phone office hours | 25 (52.1) | 19 (27.5) | 0.025 |
| By consultation office hours | 14 (27.5) | 12 (17.6) | 0.243 |
| Home visits office hours | 41 (80.4) | 60 (85.7) | 0.739 |
| GP informed out-of-hour service about patient* n (%) | 26 (56.5) | 45 (61.6) | 0.324 |
| Type of dimensions* n (%) | |||
| Somatic | 25 (54.3) | 39 (53.4) | 0.852 |
| Social and financial | 7 (15.2) | 7 (9.6) | 0.564 |
| Activities of daily living (ADL) | 24 (52.2) | 30 (41.1) | 0.455 |
| Spiritual and psychological | 19 (41.3) | 17 (23.3) | 0.103 |
| Number of dimensions median (minimum–maximum) | 2 (0–4) | 1 (0–4) | 0.266 |
| Number of dimensions* n (%) | |||
| 0 dimensions | 20 (43.5) | 31 (42.5) | |
| 1 dimension | 1 (0.02) | 7 (0.1) | |
| 2 dimensions | 5 (0.3) | 20 (43.5) | |
| ≥3 dimensions | 20 (43.5) | 15 (20.5) | 0.024 |
| Type of disciplines* yes (%) | |||
| Physiotherapist | 1 (2) | 7 (10) | 0.141 |
| Spiritual caregiver | 2 (4) | 5 (7) | 0.700 |
| Social work | 0 (0) | 2 (3) | 0.515 |
| Medical specialist | 34 (74) | 49 (67) | 0.416 |
| Palliative care consultant | 3 (7) | 7 (10) | 0.738 |
| Psychologist | 0 (0) | 2 (3) | 0.515 |
| Home care (nurse) | 19 (41) | 21 (29) | 0.323 |
| Volunteers | 2 (4) | 12 (16) | 0.043 |
| Number of disciplines median (min-max) | 2 (0–4) | 2 (0–5) | 0.849 |
*=Fisher exact for categorical variables. Other p values are Mann Whitney tests.
†Combination of CHF, COPD and cancer or another disease such as dementia, neurological causes or kidney failure. Data are mean (SD) or n (%). Some percentages do not sum to 100% because of rounding.
CHF, chronic heart failure; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; GP, general practitioner.
Bold indicates statistically significant p-values.