Table 4.
Palliative care provision, advance care planning and healthcare use during the year following Double Surprise Question completion.
| Group 1 (surprised if dead), N = 191 | Group 2a (not surprised if dead and not if alive), N = 105 | Group 2b (surprised if alive), N = 83 | All patients, N = 379 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palliative care provision | |||||
| Dimensions of palliative care; N (%) | |||||
| Somatic | 190 (99.5) | 104 (99) | 83 (100) | 377 (99.5) | |
| Non-somatic*a | 156 (81.7) | 87 (82.9) | 66 (79.5) | 309 (81.5) | |
| Anticipation | 19 (9.9) | 9 (8.6) | 18 (21.7) | 46 (12.1) | |
| Other palliative care aspects; N (%) | |||||
| Personal aspects regarding quality of life | 14 (7.3) | 27 (25.7) | 23 (27.7) | 64 (16.9) | |
| Personal goals | 2 (1.0) | 8 (7.6) | 7 (8.4) | 17 (4.5) | |
| Other preferences for treatment | 16 (8.4) | 24 (22.9) | 30 (36.1) | 70 (18.5) | |
| Advance care planning aspect(s) or directive(s) | |||||
| At least one | 69 (36.1) | 58 (55.2) | 63 (75.9) | 190 (50.1) | |
| At least three | 25 (13.1) | 28 (26.7) | 31 (37.3) | 84 (22.2) | |
| Healthcare use | |||||
| Number of consultations with; median [IQR] | |||||
| Medical oncologists | 9 [11] | 12 [11] | 5 [12] | 9 [12] | |
| Other specialists | 4 [9] | 6 [9] | 2 [9] | 4 [9] | |
| Oncology nurses | 5 [15] | 7 [14] | 3 [10] | 5 [14] | |
| Involvement of; N (%) | |||||
| Palliative care team | 14 (7.3) | 19 (18.1) | 17 (20.5) | 50 (13.2) | |
| Pain team | 19 (9.9) | 12 (11.4) | 13 (15.7) | 44 (11.6) | |
| Psychologist | 8 (4.2) | 1 (1.0) | 2 (2.4) | 11 (2.9) | |
| Chaplain | 5 (2.6) | 4 (3.8) | 7 (8.4) | 16 (4.2) | |
| Number emergency department visits; N (%) | |||||
| 0 | 142 (74.3) | 60 (57.1) | 49 (59.0) | 251 (66.2) | |
| 1 | 29 (15.2) | 24 (22.9) | 17 (20.5) | 70 (18.5) | |
| 2 | 14 (7.3) | 9 (8.6) | 10 (12.0) | 33 (8.7) | |
| ⩾3 | 6 (3.1) | 12 (11.4) | 7 (8.4) | 25 (6.6) | |
| Number of hospitalizations; N (%) | |||||
| 0 | 118 (61.8) | 59 (56.2) | 45 (54.2) | 222 (58.6) | |
| 1 | 32 (16.8) | 25 (23.8) | 21 (25.3) | 78 (20.6) | |
| 2 | 18 (9.4) | 12 (11.4) | 11 (13.3) | 41 (10.8) | |
| ⩾3 | 23 (12.0) | 9 (8.6) | 6 (7.2) | 38 (10.0) | |
N: number; IQR: inter quartile range.
*a
Initially, we reviewed whether the medical records contained information on each of the four different domains of palliative care. However, it appeared that a proper distinction between the domains could not be made. Therefore, the somatic domain was called “somatic” and the psychological, social and existential domain where combined and together called “non-somatic.”