Specialist palliative care until the very end of life - reports of family caregivers and the multiprofessional team

Table 1 Patient characteristics, care and dying situation (N = 142)

		n	%
Age, M (SD); range		71.3 (11.2); 29–94
Gender	Male	81	57.0
Gender	Female	61	43.0
Disease	Gastrointestinal cancer	33	23.2
	Cancer of the respiratory tract	30	21.2
	Urogenital cancer ^a	43	30.3
	Other malignant diseases	23	16.2
	Non-malignant diseases	13	9.2
Family status	Single	23	16.3
	Married, life partnership	79	56.0
	Divorced, widowed	39	27.7
Children	Yes	107	75.9
Children	No	34	24.1
Advance directive at initiation of SPC	Yes	98	69.0
Advance directive at initiation of SPC	No	44	31.0
Days between initiation of SPC and death, M (SD); Range		53.7 (60.3); 0-279
Experience of at least one transfer between in- and outpatient SPC settings	Yes	45	31.7
	No	97	68.3
Number of transfers between in- and outpatient SPC settings, M (SD); Range		0.6 (1.2); 0–8
Location at death	At home with outpatient SPC	73	51.4
	Nursing home with outpatient SPC	12	8.5
	Inpatient hospice with outpatient SPC	6	4.2
	Palliative care ward	51	35.9
SPC setting at the time of death	Outpatient	92	64.8
SPC setting at the time of death	Inpatient	50	35.2
Performance status (ECOG) in the last 3 days of life	ECOG ≤ 2	8	5.7
	ECOG 3	21	14.9
	ECOG 4	112	79.4
Vigilance status in the last 3 days of life	Alert	15	10.9
	Can be awakened	37	27.0
	Comatose	79	57.7
	Unknown	6	4.4
Somebody was with the patient in the moment of death	Yes	97	70.8
	No	30	21.9
	Unknown	10	7.3

^a Including all cancers of the urogenital system (e.g. prostate cancer, bladder cancer etc.) and breast cancer
Abbreviations: SPC, specialist palliative care; ECOG, performance status according to the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group

ISSN: 1472-684X