Table 1.
Characteristics of Patients Hospitalized with End-Stage Liver Disease by Inpatient Palliative Care Consultation Status before and after Matching, Nationwide Readmissions Database 2010–2014
| Variables | Before propensity matching |
After propensity matching |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No PCC | PCC | p | No PCC | PCC | p | |
| Number (%) | 62295 (94.7) | 3485 (5.3) | <0.0001 | 3439 (50.0) | 3439 (50.0) | 1 |
| Age, years, mean (SD) | 55.9 (10.4) | 58.3 (10.7) | <0.0001 | 58.7 (10.5) | 58.4 (10.8) | 0.2939 |
| Sex (%) | 0.5400 | 0.5526 | ||||
| Female | 34.7 | 34.0 | 33.6 | 34.2 | ||
| Male | 65.3 | 66.0 | 66.4 | 65.8 | ||
| DNR (%) | 4.0 | 41.6 | <0.0001 | 40.0 | 42.1 | 0.1758 |
| Hepatocellular carcinoma (%) | 8.2 | 22.1 | <0.0001 | 21.6 | 22.0 | 0.9104 |
| Liver transplant (%) | 3.2 | 0.3 | <0.0001 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.6164 |
| Complications of ESLD (%) | ||||||
| Ascites | 89.5 | 91.5 | 0.0008 | 91.1 | 91.0 | 0.8646 |
| Variceal hemorrhage or bleeding | 53.6 | 36.8 | <0.0001 | 37.2 | 37.2 | 0.9613 |
| Hepatorenal syndrome | 13.8 | 35.7 | <0.0001 | 36.3 | 36.2 | 0.9234 |
| Hepatic encephalopathy | 33.6 | 42.7 | <0.0001 | 41.5 | 41.4 | 0.9048 |
| Portal hypertension | 52.8 | 44.4 | <0.0001 | 44.4 | 45.0 | 0.5803 |
| Jaundice | 5.5 | 8.3 | <0.0001 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 0.8282 |
| Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis | 15.4 | 19.4 | <0.0001 | 19.8 | 19.3 | 0.5940 |
| Protein–energy malnutrition | 18.3 | 34.8 | <0.0001 | 35.7 | 35.0 | 0.5717 |
| Charlson–Deyo comorbidity index (%) | <0.0001 | 0.1281 | ||||
| Index: 0 | 42.9 | 35.5 | 35.3 | 37.0 | ||
| Index: 1–3 | 47.5 | 44.8 | 44.9 | 44.9 | ||
| Index: >3 | 9.5 | 19.7 | 19.8 | 18.0 | ||
| Insurance (%) | <0.0001 | 0.1017 | ||||
| Medicare | 35.0 | 38.1 | 39.5 | 36.8 | ||
| Medicaid | 28.6 | 27.9 | 28.7 | 29.0 | ||
| Private | 24.5 | 21.2 | 20.0 | 21.5 | ||
| Self-pay and othersa | 11.9 | 12.7 | 11.8 | 12.7 | ||
| Median household income (%) | 0.1647 | 0.7679 | ||||
| First quartile (lowest) | 31.9 | 32.8 | 30.2 | 30.5 | ||
| Second quartile | 27.1 | 25.3 | 24.6 | 24.7 | ||
| Third quartile | 23.2 | 24.4 | 25.8 | 24.8 | ||
| Fourth quartile (highest) | 17.9 | 17.5 | 19.4 | 20.0 | ||
| Hospital bed size (%) | 0.4779 | 0.2435 | ||||
| Small | 9.4 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 7.5 | ||
| Medium | 22.4 | 22.1 | 22.1 | 20.8 | ||
| Large | 68.1 | 69.6 | 69.8 | 71.6 | ||
| Hospital location (%) | 0.0002 | 0.6251 | ||||
| Large metropolitan | 63.4 | 61.5 | 63.1 | 62.2 | ||
| Small metropolitan | 30.9 | 34.7 | 34.1 | 34.7 | ||
| Micropolitan | 4.7 | 3.4 | 2.7 | 2.8 | ||
| Nonmicro/metropolitan | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | ||
| Hospital teaching status (%) | 0.0002 | 0.5113 | ||||
| Metropolitan nonteaching | 29.5 | 27.4 | 32.4 | 31.2 | ||
| Metropolitan teaching | 64.8 | 68.8 | 64.8 | 65.7 | ||
| Nonmetropolitan | 5.7 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 3.1 | ||
| Hospital ownership (%) | 0.0003 | 0.6877 | ||||
| Government | 15.3 | 15.3 | 16.9 | 16.9 | ||
| Private, nonprofit | 71.4 | 75.3 | 73.9 | 74.6 | ||
| Private, profit | 13.3 | 9.3 | 9.1 | 8.5 | ||
| Weekend admission (%) | 22.7 | 22.5 | 0.7872 | 23.1 | 22.6 | 0.6630 |
| Discharge disposition (%) | <0.0001 | 0.5615 | ||||
| Home, home with hospice | 81.2 | 53.2 | 52.7 | 54.1 | ||
| Left against medical advice | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | ||
| Skilled nursing facility | 16.6 | 46.3 | 46.6 | 45.3 | ||
a
Individuals without any health insurance or paying health fees out of pocket.
Large metropolitan (population ≥1,000,000), small metropolitan (population between 50,000 and 1,000,000), micropolitan (population between 10,000 and 50,000), and non micro-/metropolitan (population <10,000).
Charlson–Deyo index was calculated excluding ESLD and hepatocellular carcinoma for this study.
DNR, do-not-resuscitate order; ESLD, end-stage liver disease; PCC, palliative care consultation.