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Table 1 Number of prescriptions issued per quarter, to all 2443 cancer decedents, in their last year of lifea

From: Community prescribing trends and prevalence in the last year of life, for people who die from cancer

 

Drug class

0–12 weeks before death (n = 60,781)

13–25 weeks before death (n = 45,630)

26–38 weeks before death (n = 39,293)

39–52 weeks before death (n = 35,773)

Relative increaseb

OR (95%CI) Test for Trend (1st quarter vs. 4th quarter)

Analgesia and Non-Analgesic Palliative Care Medication.

Anti-muscarinic

1250

274

199

123

10.30

6.25 (5.26 to 7.69)***

Anti-Emetics

3018

1169

731

515

6.00

3.70 (3.33 to 4.00) ***

Strong Opioid

8668

3608

2254

1726

5.10

3.33 (3.23 to 3.57) ***

Anxiolytics

2232

742

610

497

4.50

2.78 (2.50 to 3.03) ***

Laxatives

2242

1554

1075

903

2.50

1.51 (1.41 to 1.64) ***

Other pain drugs

1536

1254

925

768

2.00

1.22 (1.11 to 1.33) ***

Other palliative care drug

1469

1058

902

802

1.86

1.11 (1.02 to 1.22) *

Antibiotics

2245

1791

1449

1330

1.69

1.02 (0.67 to 1.10)

Paracetamol

3444

2059

1580

2205

1.56

0.94 (0.89 to 1.00) *

Weak Opioid

1241

1246

955

909

1.38

0.82 (0.75 to 0.90) ***

Antidepressants

998

1004

883

844

1.20

0.71 (0.65 to 0.78) ***

NSAID

1524

1658

1636

1618

0.94

0.56 (0.52 to 0.60) ***

Non-Palliative Care Medication

Enteral nutrition

1972

1173

782

555

3.60

2.17 (2.00 to 2.38) ***

Steroid

2429

1339

956

847

2.88

1.75 (1.64 to 1.92) ***

Other

14,258

11,181

10,087

7205

1.53

0.88 (0.86 to 0.92) ***

Reflux medication

2926

2765

2377

2154

1.37

0.81 (0.77 to 0.86) ***

Anticoagulants

1035

1157

980

1175

1.07

0.61 (0.56 to 0.66) ***

Cancer-specific treatment

1024

1205

1184

1097

0.94

0.56 (0.51 to 0.61) ***

Inhalers

1534

1648

1598

1662

0.94

0.55 (0.51 to 0.59) ***

Bone Protection

557

735

763

1272

0.79

0.47 (0.42 to 0.52) ***

Anti-hypertensives

4135

5407

5654

5790

0.71

0.39 (0.37 to 0.41) ***

Lipid-lowering drugs

1044

1603

1713

1776

0.59

0.34 (0.32 to 0.37) ***

  1. aIn the following figures, the numbers of prescriptions for each medication class are presented over time. Time is presented as ‘weeks before death’, with ‘zero’ representing the date of death. Increasing time, shown on the X Axis, reflects time further away from time of death
  2. bRelative Increase reflects the comparison in number of prescriptions issued per drug class between the last 0–12 weeks of life, and 39–52 weeks before death
  3. Statistical significance: *: p < 0.05 **: p < 0.01 ***: p < 0.001.
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BMC Palliative Care

ISSN: 1472-684X

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