Symptoms, symptom relief and support in COVID-19 patients dying in hospitals during the first pandemic wave

BMC Palliative Care

Table 2 Sex differences within the COVID-19 group, not adjusted for age. Analysed with chi-2 test

Characteristics	Women	Men	χ²	P-value
Breathlessness occurrence^a	403/555 (73%)	550/769 (72%)	0.2	.66
Breathlessness relief^b	130/403 (32%)	156/550 (28%)	1.7	.20
Anxiety occurrence^a	371/510 (73%)	454/679 (67%)	4.7	.029
Anxiety relief^b	225/371 (61%)	268/454 (59%)	0.2	.64
Delirium occurrence^a	176/455 (39%)	257/635 (41%)	0.4	.55
Delirium relief^b	27/176 (15%)	45/257 (18%)	0.4	.55
Respiratory secretions occurrence^a	232/570 (41%)	399/787 (51%)	13.3	<.001
Respiratory secretions relief^b	82/232 (35%)	141/399 (35%)	0.00	.999
Nausea occurrence^a	55/430 (13%)	45/592 (8%)	7.6	.006
Nausea relief^b	21/55 (38%)	19/45 (42%)	0.2	.68
Pain occurrence^a	345/548 (63%)	441/735 (60%)	1.2	.28
Pain relief^b	236/345 (68%)	302/441 (69%)	0.001	.98
Close friend(s) and/or relative(s) present with or without staff at the time of death^a	149/598 (25%)	217/821 (26%)	0.4	.52
Someone present at the time of death^a	330/598 (55%)	475/821 (58%)	1.0	.32
Parenteral fluids/nutrition or enteral-tube feeding given during the last 24 hours	211/606 (35%)	324/827 (39%)	2.8	.092

^a“Don’t know” was an optional answer for the questions on symptom occurrence, and these responses were excluded from the analysis. Therefore, numbers do not sum to group totals
^bAlternatives for answers on symptom relief were “Completely”, “Partially” and “Not at all”

ISSN: 1472-684X