Twenty years of home-based palliative care in Malappuram, Kerala, India: a descriptive study of patients and their care-givers

Table 3 Factors associated with opting out of palliative care among newly registered patients in the Manjeri Palliative Care Unit, Kerala during 2013–2015

Variables	N	Opted out of care N (%)	Unadjusted RR(95%CI)	p-value	Adjusted RR(95%CI)	p-value
Age group^a				< 0.001
≤ 60	165	27(16)	5.1(2.7–9.8)		3.7 (1.9–7.4)	< 0.001
> 60 years	375	12(3)	ref		ref
Sex^a				0.3
Male	265	22(8)	1.4 (0.8–2.6)		–	–
Female	280	17(6)	ref		–	–
Socio-economic status^a,b				0.25
Poor	260	21(8)	1.9(0.6–5.5)		–	–
Middle class/Wealthy	244	16(7)	ref		–	–
Type of care-giver				0.09
Spouse	168	13 (8)	0.9(0.5–1.7)		–	–
Other	372	27 (7)	ref		–	–
Primary clinical				< 0.001
diagnosis
Cancer	151	11(7)	0.9 (0.5–1.9)		0.7 (0.4–1.4)	0.3
Serious Mental Illness	33	9(27)	3.7 (1.8–7.5)		1.9 (1.3–3.8)	0.01
Other	244	18(8)	ref		ref
CVA	123	2(2)	0.2(0.05–0.9)		0.3 (0.08–0.9)	0.04
Number of home visits in first year of enrollment by doctor				0.03
≤1	293	31 (10)	2.9(1.4–6.1)		2.4 (1.2–6.0)	0.03
> 1	247	9(4)	ref		ref
Number of home visits the first year of enrollment by nurse				0.019
≤ 5	283	28 (4)	2.1(1.1–4.1)		1.2(0.7–2.7)	0.1
> 5	257	12 (2)	ref		ref

CVA Cardiovascular Accident, RR Relative Risk, CI Confidence Interval
^adata missing
^bThis is based on the clinic’s standard assessment of a patient’s socio-economic status depending on whether the breadwinner is ill and the level of economic self sufficiency of the family
^$Other include children, daughters-in-law, parents, sisters-in-law and hired caregivers
Figures in bold font indicate significant p value (< 0.05)

ISSN: 1472-684X