Table 4.

Number of healthcare team–family communication encounters in the last 5 days of life in mixed effects negative binomial models (A: in-person and B: telephone)*

ModelsAnd variables examined	Count†	Incidence rate ratio (95% CI)	P value
A. In-person encounter	2 (1–4)
Age of decedent‡		0.997 (0.99–1.004)	0.396
Sex of decedent (female)	2 (1–5)	1
Sex of decedent (male)	2 (1–4)	0.85 (0.72–0.99)	0.041
Study group: exposure status
Pre-COVID	3 (2–5)	1
COVID-ve	2 (1–4)	0.76 (0.64–0.90)	0.001
COVID+ve	0 (0–2)	0.61 (0.47–0.79)	<0.001
Care service at death
Medicine service	2 (0–5)	1
Intensive care unit	2 (1–3)	0.68 (0.55–0.84)	<0.001
Days in hospital‡		1.003 (0.999–1.006)	0.411
B. Telephone communications	1 (0–3)
Age of decedent‡		1.005 (0.996–1.01)	0.283
Sex of decedent (female)	1 (0–3)	1
Sex of decedent (male)	1 (0–3)	1.002 (0.84–1.19)	0.984
Study group: exposure status
Pre-COVID	1 (0–1)	1
COVID-ve	2 (1–3)	2.60 (2.09–3.25)	<0.001
COVID+ve	4 (2–5)	4.77 (3.72–6.12)	<0.001
Care service at death
Medicine	1 (0–3)	1
Intensive care unit	1 (0–3)	1.16 (0.93–1.43)	0.189
Days in hospital‡		0.998 (0.99–1.001)	0.203

Bold values were statistically significant

*Hospital site and family’s physical presence in the last 48 hours of life were both included as random effects in both models.

†Counts for categorical variables, median (Q1–Q3).

‡Treated as a continuous covariate in models.