Comparing unplanned and potentially planned home deaths: a population-based cross-sectional study

BMC Palliative Care

Table 3 Comparing potentially planned home deaths with unplanned home deaths and all deaths^a

	Potentially planned home death		Unplanned home death			All deaths
	n	%	n	%	p	n	%
All	5089	100	7067	100		80,908	100
Sex					< 0.001
Female	2458	48.3	2717	38.5		42,290	52.3
Male	2631	51.7	4350	61.5		38,618	47.7
Age (years)					< 0.001
0–39	60	1.2	489	6.9		1841	2.3
40–49	113	2.2	437	6.2		1728	2.1
50–59	367	7.2	882	12.5		4291	5.3
60–69	887	17.4	1494	21.1		9975	12.3
70–79	1115	21.9	1423	20.1		15,053	18.6
80–89	1673	32.9	1620	22.9		29,360	36.3
90+	874	17.2	722	10.2		18,660	23.1
Cause of death^b					< 0.001
Cancer	2225	43.7	423	6.0		21,913	27.1
Circulatory	2071	40.7	2173	30.7		25,004	30.9
Respiratory	602	11.8	350	5.0		8212	10.2
Neurological	155	3.0	48	0.7		1819	2.2
Renal	36	0.7	16	0.2		489	0.6
Other	0	0.0	4057	57.4		23,471	29.0
Household					< 0.001
Cohabiting	2273	44.7	958	13.6		33,890	41.9
Living alone	2366	46.5	1672	23.7		28,540	35.3
Missing^c	450	8.8	4437	62.8		18,478	22.8
Municipality population					< 0.001
0–2000	175	3.4	250	3.5		2787	3.4
2001–5000	651	12.8	809	11.4		8972	11.1
5001–10,000	826	16.2	969	13.7		11,109	13.7
10,001–50,000	2092	41.1	2748	38.9		31,091	38.4
50,001-	1337	26.3	2266	32.1		26,664	33.0
Missing^c	8	0.2	25	0.4		285	0.4
Municipality centrality					< 0.001
Least central	647	12.7	884	12.5		9856	12.2
Less central	377	7.4	481	6.8		5582	6.9
Somewhat central	1071	21.0	1360	19.2		15,429	19.1
Central	2986	58.7	4317	61.1		49,756	61.5
Missing^c	8	0.2	25	0.4		285	0.4
Nursing home^d					< 0.001
Yes	860	16.9	549	7.8		46,638	57.6
No	4229	83.1	6518	92.2		34,270	42.2
Domiciliary care^d					< 0.001
Yes	5089	100.0	1966	27.8		39,445	48.8
No	0	0.0	5101	72.2		41,463	51.2

^aP Pearson chi-square test for planned and unplanned home deaths
^bCause of death was divided into five categories according to diagnoses most likely to receive palliative care, the rest were labelled other
^cNot included in statistical analysis
^dService any time in the period 0–90 days before death

ISSN: 1472-684X