A retrospective population based cohort study of access to specialist palliative care in the last year of life: who is still missing out a decade on?

Table 1 Summary characteristics of the cohort at time of death by cause of death category (n = 12817)

Socio-demographic variables	Cancer only		Cancer + non cancer		Non-cancer only		All
Socio-demographic variables	n = 7166		n = 527		n = 5124		n = 12817
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Age at death (years)
< 60	1,262	17.6	72	13.7	322	6.3	1,656	12.9
60–69	1,527	21.3	83	15.7	402	7.8	2,012	15.7
70–79	2,007	28.0	167	31.7	1,035	20.2	3,209	25.0
80–89	1,904	26.6	175	33.2	2,138	41.7	4,217	32.9
90+	466	6.5	30	5.7	1,227	23.9	1,723	13.4
Sex
Male	4,090	57.1	333	63.2	2,521	49.2	6,944	54.2
Female	3,076	42.9	194	36.8	2,603	50.8	5,873	45.8
Partnered at death
No	3,279	45.8	260	49.3	3,322	64.8	6,861	53.5
Yes	3,887	54.2	267	50.7	1,802	35.2	5,956	46.5
Accessibility of residence
Major cities	4,958	69.4	355	67.7	3,471	68.0	8,784	68.7
Inner regional	1,184	16.6	88	16.8	848	16.6	2,120	16.6
Outer regional	663	9.3	51	9.7	502	9.8	1,216	9.5
Remote	238	3.3	20	3.8	170	3.3	428	3.3
Very remote	106	1.5	10	1.9	117	2.3	233	1.8
IRSD of area of residence
Most disadvantage	1,464	20.5	132	25.2	1,192	23.3	2,788	21.8
More disadvantage	1,571	22.0	99	18.9	1,110	21.7	2,780	21.8
Average disadvantage	1,434	20.1	115	21.9	1,056	20.7	2,605	20.4
Less disadvantage	1,265	17.7	89	17.0	822	16.1	2,176	17.0
Least disadvantage	1,415	19.8	89	17.0	928	18.2	2,432	19.0
Residence type at death
Private	6,393	89.2	438	83.1	2,963	57.8	9,794	76.4
RACF	684	9.5	77	14.6	1,962	38.3	2,723	21.2
Other care facility	43	0.6	5	0.9	109	2.1	157	1.2
Unknown/NFA/other	46	0.6	7	1.3	90	1.8	143	1.1

RACF residential aged care facility, NFA no fixed address, IRSD Index of relative social disadvantage

ISSN: 1472-684X