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. 2020 Dec 10;17(24):9255. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17249255

Table 1.

Characteristics of people with dementia and matched groups with or without burdensome end-of-life transition.

All Decedents
N = 61,399
Decedents Included in the Nested Case-Control Analysis
No Burdensome End-of-Life Transitions (Matched Controls)
N = 34,910
Burdensome End-of-Life Transitions (Matched Cases)
N = 17,455
Early Transition Only
(Multiple Transitions Last 90 Days)
N = 7891
Late Transition Only (Any Transition Last 3 Days)
N = 8752
Both Early and Late Transitions
N = 812
Age when death, mean (SD) 83.2 (9.7) 83.5 (9.6) 82.3 (9.6) 82.7 (10.1) 82.2 (10.2)
Gender (female), n (%) 29,595 (48.2) 17,099 (49.0) 3266 (41.4) 4486 (51.2) 339 (41.8)
Characteristics at time of dementia diagnosis
SES—Income # , n (%)
Dependent
Fair
High
Very high

11,934 (19.4)
32,609 (53.1)
16,076 (26.2) 780 (1.3)

6968 (20.0)
18,575 (53.2)
8955 (25.7)
412 (1.2)

1307 (16.6)
4660 (59.1)
1828 (23.2)
96 (1.2)

1776 (20.3)
4212 (48.1)
2621 (30.0)
143 (1.6)

143 (17.6)
426 (52.5)
239 (29.4)
4 (0.5)
SES—Urbanisation, n (%)
1 most urbanised
2
3
4 most ruralised
(Missing, n = 25,381; 41.3%)
15,745 (43.7)
15,494 (43.0)
4097 (11.4)
682 (1.9)
(Missing, n = 14,722; 42.2%)
8806 (43.6)
8733 (43.3)
2281 (11.3)
368 (1.8)
(Missing, n = 3153; 40.0%)
2005 (42.3)
2060 (43.5)
580 (12.2)
93 (2.0)
(Missing, n = 3580; 40.9%)
2356 (45.6)
2170 (42.0)
538 (10.4)
108 (2.1)
(Missing, n = 316; 38.9%)
211 (42.5)
218 (44.0)
55 (11.1)
12 (2.4)
Age-adjusted CCI, mean (SD) 7.4 (2.8) 7.3 (2.8) 7.7 (2.9) 7.3 (2.8) 7.9 (3.0)
Comorbidities
Cancer, n (%) 8520 (13.9) 4699 (13.5) 1323 (16.8) 1101 (12.6) 158 (19.5)
Heart failure, n (%) 10,806 (17.6) 5998 (17.2) 1484 (18.8) 1573 (18.0) 174 (21.4)
COPD, n (%) 21,466 (35.0) 12,033 (34.5) 3066 (38.9) 2875 (32.9) 339 (41.8)
Liver cirrhosis/ chronic liver Disease, n (%) 11,946 (19.5) 6552 (18.8) 1768 (22.4) 1634 (18.7) 177 (21.8)
Renal failure, n (%) 1565 (2.6) 886 (2.5) 230 (2.9) 203 (2.3) 23 (2.8)
Hypertension, n (%) 40,441 (65.9) 22,805 (65.3) 5266 (66.7) 5720 (65.4) 555 (68.4)
Diabetes, n (%) 18,953 (30.9) 10,413 (29.8) 2664 (33.8) 2775 (31.7) 259 (31.9)
Coronary artery disease, n (%) 22,871 (37.3) 12,755 (36.5) 3082 (39.1) 3265 (37.3) 330 (40.6)
Hyperlipidaemia, n (%) 13,578 (22.1) 7408 (21.2) 1647 (20.9) 2181 (24.9) 174 (21.4)
Atrial fibrillation, n (%) 3954 (6.4) 2192 (6.3) 559 (7.1) 581 (6.6) 56 (6.9)
Depression, n (%) 8015 (13.1) 4321 (12.4) 1019 (12.9) 1313 (15.0) 121 (14.9)
Characteristics in the follow-up
Time from cohort entry to death (days), mean (SD) 1030.7 (872.8) 1038.7 (859.4) 841.0 (770.4) 1093.5 (898.8) 887.2 (816.6)
   HHC related factors
    HHC, n (%) 17,046 (27.8) 9670 (27.7) 2197 (27.8) 2277 (26.0) 251 (30.9)
    HHC (total counts/person), mean (SD) 22.2 (27.4) 22.8 (27.3) 16.8 (21.8) 23.8 (28.8) 17.0 (24.1)
    Duration of HHC (days), median (Q1–Q3) 234 (57–648) 245 (61–654) 151 (28–496) 256 (59–728) 127 (15–499)
    Frequency of HHC (counts /year/person), mean (SD) 9.8 (6.7) 10.1 (6.7) 8.4 (6.4) 10.0 (6.8) 8.3 (6.5)
Resource utilisation group of first HHC, n (%)
1
2
3
4
(missing n = 20; 0.1%)

895 (5.3)
11,958 (70.2)
3888 (22.8)
285 (1.7)
(missing n = 10; 0.1%)

487 (5.0)
6766 (70.0)
2242 (23.2)
165 (1.7)
(missing n = 4; 0.2%)

118 (5.4)
1458 (66.5)
567 (25.9)
50 (2.3)
(missing n = 5; 0.2%)

147 (6.5)
1663 (73.2)
437 (19.2)
25 (1.1)


11 (4.4)
168 (66.9)
68 (27.1)
4 (1.6)
Time from cohort entry to first HHC (days), median (Q1–Q3) 520 (145–1179) 520 (147–1165) 455 (133–1020) 578 (151–1255) 488 (115–1068)
Time from last HHC to death, (days), median (Q1–Q3) 29 (15–67) 30 (17–69) 46 (22–89) 18 (9–32) 22 (9–52)

COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, HHC = home healthcare, SD = standard deviation, SES = socioeconomic status, Q1 = first quartile, Q3 = third quartile, and CCI = Charlson Comorbidity Index. # Insurance premium-related income.