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Table 5 Patient characteristics related to hospital-based palliative care in the last year of life for people aged 18 years or more in NSW in 2007 (n = 45,749)

From: Acute hospital-based services used by adults during the last year of life in New South Wales, Australia: a population-based retrospective cohort study

  

Palliative care indicator 1 (15 %)

Palliative care indicator 2 (24 %)

 

No. of deaths

n (% within category)

Adjusted OR (95 % CI)

n (% within category)

Adjusted OR (95 % CI)

Age at death

  

p < 0.0001

 

p < 0.0001

 18–59

5722

1068 (19)

0.89 (0.82–0.97)

1601 (28)

0.86 (0.80–0.93)

 60–79

15,723

3384 (22)

1.00 (reference)

5109 (32)

1.00 (reference)

 80–89

16,354

1936 (12)

0.73 (0.68–0.78)

3160 (19)

0.74 (0.70–0.79)

 90+

7950

521 (7)

0.54 (0.49–0.61)

907 (11)

0.56 (0.51–0.61)

Sex

  

p = 0.45

 

p = 0.53

 Female

22,422

3121 (14)

1.00 (reference)

4877 (22)

1.00 (reference)

 Male

23,117

3788 (16)

0.98 (0.92–1.04)

5900 (26)

0.98 (0.93–1.04)

 Unknown

210

0 (0)

Not included

0 (0)

Not included

Country of birth

  

p < 0.0001

 

p < 0.0001

 Australia

33,862

4649 (14)

1.00 (reference)

7650 (23)

1.00 (reference)

 Other

11,536

2258 (20)

1.28 (1.20–1.37)

3125 (27)

1.17 (1.10–1.24)

 Unknown

351

2 (1)

Not included

2 (1)

Not included

Place of residencea

  

p < 0.0001

 

p < 0.0001

 Major cities

30,907

5538 (18)

1.00 (reference)

7809 (25)

1.00 (reference)

 Inner regional

10,990

1060 (10)

0.46 (0.42–0.50)

2201 (20)

0.75 (0.70–0.81)

 Outer regional/Remote/Very remote

3396

297 (9)

0.36 (0.31–0.42)

746 (22)

0.81 (0.72–0.90)

 Unknown

462

14 (3)

Not included

21 (5)

Not included

Socioeconomic statusb

  

p < 0.0001

 

p = 0.01

 Most disadvantaged quintile

9045

1409 (16)

1.27 (1.15–1.40)

2231 (25)

1.02 (0.93–1.12)

 Quintile 2

10,207

1317 (13)

0.86 (0.78–0.95)

2238 (22)

0.76 (0.69–0.82)

 Quintile 3

10,169

1405 (14)

0.88 (0.80–0.97)

2133 (21)

0.72 (0.66–0.79)

 Quintile 4

7878

1358 (17)

1.02 (0.93–1.12)

2039 (26)

0.99 (0.90–1.07)

 Least disadvantaged quintile

7943

1403 (18)

1.00 (reference)

2109 (27)

1.00 (reference)

 Unknown

507

17 (3)

Not included

27 (5)

Not included

Cause of death

  

p < 0.0001

 

p < 0.0001

 Circulatory system

15,500

679 (4)

1.00 (reference)

1227 (8)

1.00 (reference)

 Cancer

13,441

5253 (39)

12.88 (11.81–14.05)

7841 (58)

14.89 (13.88–15.96)

 Other known cause

15,226

896 (6)

1.30 (1.17–1.44)

1564 (10)

1.29 (1.19–1.39)

 Cause not known

1582

81 (5)

Not included

145 (9)

Not included

  1. Palliative Care Indicator 1 admitted to an inpatient hospice or had a hospital admission flagged with “saw palliative team”, Palliative Care Indicator 2 any mention of current or future palliative care (including Indicator 1) or referred to an inpatient hospice, OR odds ratio adjusted for all other factors in table, CI confidence interval
  2. aBased on Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Accessibility Remoteness Index for Australia
  3. bUsing population-based quintiles of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ index of relative disadvantage