Table 1 Baseline characteristics of terminal pancreatic cancer patients according to end-of-life care
Inpatient palliative care | Acute hospital care | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Characteristics | Pre-matched | Post-matched | |||
n (%) | n (%) | P | n (%) | P | |
Number of patients | 276 (100) | 578 (100) | 276 (100) | ||
Age (years; mean ± SD) | 68.6 ± 13.4 | 67.5 ± 12.8 | 0.265 | 68.5 ± 12.4 | 0.953 |
Sex | 0.687 | 0.535 | |||
Male | 173 (63) | 354 (61) | 180 (65) | ||
Female | 103 (37) | 224 (39) | 96 (35) | ||
Physicians’ specialty | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||
Family medicine | 108 (39) | 38 (7) | 24 (7) | ||
Oncology | 69 (25) | 174 (30) | 77 (29) | ||
Internal medicine | 64 (23) | 226 (39) | 104 (43) | ||
General | 57 (21) | 64 (11) | 28 (10) | ||
Gastroenterology | 3 (1) | 138 (24) | 65 (24) | ||
Cardiology | 0 (0) | 3 (1) | 2 (0.7) | ||
Chest medicine | 0 (0) | 14 (2) | 8 (3) | ||
Nephrology | 1 (0.4) | 2 (0.3) | 0 (0) | ||
Endocrinology | 0 (0) | 4 (0.7) | 1 (0.4) | ||
Infection | 3 (1) | 1 (0.2) | 0 (0) | ||
Radiation oncology | 25 (9) | 17 (3) | 6 (2) | ||
Surgery | 0 (0) | 113 (20) | 57 (18) | ||
Neurology | 9 (3) | 6 (1) | 3 (1) | ||
Others | 1 (0.4) | 4 (0.7) | 4 (1) | ||
Accreditation level of hospital | 0.030 | 0.304 | |||
Medical centers | 161 (58) | 316 (55) | 156 (57) | ||
Regional hospitals | 73 (26) | 199 (34) | 87 (32) | ||
District hospitals | 42 (15) | 63 (11) | 33 (12) | ||
Region of hospital | 0.021 | 0.668 | |||
North | 171 (62) | 401 (69) | 171 (62) | ||
Central | 20 (7) | 49 (8) | 25 (9) | ||
South | 75 (27) | 120 (21) | 74 (27) | ||
East | 10 (4) | 8 (1) | 6 (2) | ||
Charlson comorbidity index (mean ± SD) | 6.8 ± 6.5 | 6.7 ± 6.5 | 0.798 | 6.9 ± 2.8 | 0.564 |
Length of hospital stay (day, mean ± SD) | 10.6 ± 11.1 | 20.6 ± 16.7 | <0.001 | 20.6 ± 16.3 | <0.001 |