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 2 The number and proportion of cohort who accessed specialist palliative care in the last year of life (n = 12817)

Type of specialist palliative care received
		Community only		Hospital only		Community and hospital
	All No.	n = 2270		n = 1986		n = 1676		Total specialist palliative care
Cause of death		No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	%Δ^a
Grouped
Cancer only	7166	1,907	26.6	1,484	20.7	1,537	21.4	4,928	68.8	+1.0
Cancer + non cancer	527	120	22.8	90	17.1	65	12.3	275	52.2	+4.0
Non cancer only	5124	243	4.7	412	8.0	74	1.4	729	14.2	+6.1*
Total	12817	2270	17.7	1986	15.5	1676	13.1	5,932	46.3	+3.5*
Principal
Cancer	7411	1,967	26.5	1,522	20.5	1,5651	21.1	5,054	68.2	+1.0
Heart failure	2019	94	4.7	148	7.3	23	1.1	265	13.1	+3.8*
Renal failure	1145	63	5.5	135	11.8	27	2.4	225	19.7	+8.1*
COPD	1094	86	7.9	84	7.7	26	2.4	196	17.9	+10.7*
Alzheimer’s	608	15	2.5	22	3.6	0	0.0	37	6.1	+2.7
Liver failure	206	15	7.3	41	19.9	12	5.8	68	33.0	+16.2*
Motor neurone	136	23	16.9	17	12.5	22	16.2	62	45.6	+10.3
Parkinson’s	181	<5		15	8.3	<5		21	11.6	+7.5

COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cells with less than five decedents were listed as <5
^*Statistically significant increases with p-value < 0.001
^aPercentage change in the proportion of decedents in 2009/2010 who received specialist palliative care in the last year of life compared to that reported for 2000–2002 [3, 33]
% = row percentages. Due to low numbers, subgroup analyses are not shown for decedents with HIV/AIDS (n<5) or Huntington's disease (n=13)

ISSN: 1472-684X