Table 2.
Characteristics of Inpatient Hospice and Nonhospice Before (January–April 2019) and During COVID-19 Pandemic (January–April 2020)
| Characteristics | Nonhospice Units |
Hospice Units |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. (%) of Subjectsa |
P | No. (%) of Subjectsa |
P | |||
| Before Pandemic, n = 7482 (%) | During Pandemic, n = 5878 (%) | Before Pandemic, n = 151 (%) | During Pandemic, n = 55 (%) | |||
| Demographics | ||||||
| Age, years | ||||||
| Mean ± SD | 60.8 ± 23.1 | 60.6 ± 22.9 | 0.529 | 80.0 ± 13.5 | 79.8 ± 11.4 | 0.912 |
| <65 | 3799 (50.8) | 2988 (50.8) | 0.947 | 27 (17.9) | 4 (7.3) | 0.060 |
| ≥65 | 3683 (49.2) | 2890 (49.2) | 124 (82.1) | 51 (92.7) | ||
| Sex | ||||||
| Female | 3763 (50.3) | 2814 (47.9) | 0.006 | 73 (48.3) | 26 (47.3) | 0.892 |
| Male | 3719 (49.7) | 3064 (52.1) | 78 (51.7) | 29 (52.7) | ||
| Comorbidity | ||||||
| Cancer | 2206 (29.5) | 1959 (33.3) | <0.001 | 98 (64.9) | 39 (70.9) | 0.419 |
| Diabetes | 1080 (14.4) | 792 (13.5) | 0.112 | 19 (12.6) | 6 (10.9) | 0.745 |
| COPD | 139 (1.9) | 114 (1.9) | 0.731 | 4 (2.6) | 2 (3.6) | 0.313 |
| Coronary heart disease | 408 (5.5) | 338 (5.8) | 0.458 | 7 (4.6) | 3 (5.5) | 0.266 |
| Congestive heart failure | 260 (3.5) | 215 (3.7) | 0.571 | 12 (7.9) | 3 (5.5) | 0.212 |
| Chronic kidney disease | 389 (5.2) | 282 (4.8) | 0.291 | 11 (7.3) | 4 (7.3) | 0.236 |
| Dementia | 100 (1.3) | 66 (1.1) | 0.268 | 6 (4.0) | 2 (3.6) | 0.315 |
| Outcomes | ||||||
| Length of stays ± SD | 8.9 ± 15.3 | 7.5 ± 8.96 | <0.001 | 17.1 ± 14.8 | 15.8 ± 14.5 | 0.571 |
| Medical expensesb ± SD | 2627 ± 4399 | 2506 ± 2979 | 0.059 | 2996 ± 3377 | 2739 ± 3808 | 0.641 |
| Death | 269 (3.6) | 218 (3.7) | 0.728 | 114 (75.5) | 55 (72.7) | 0.686 |
COVID-19 ＝ coronavirus disease 2019; COPD ＝ chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
a
Unless stated otherwise.
b
Medical expenses are presented in US dollars. (US dollars: NT dollars = 1: 30.19).