Factors associated with being admitted to hospital in the course of the last 7 days of life (non-sudden deaths): multivariable logistic regression analysis*
| OR (95% CI)† | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium N=1449 | The Netherlands N=556 | Italy N=1618 | Spain N=559 | |||||
| OR (95% CI) | n (%) | OR (95% CI) | n (%) | OR (95% CI) | n (%) | OR (95% CI) | n (%) | |
| Age (years) | ||||||||
| 18–64 | Ref | 27 (14) | Ref | 9 (9) | Ref | 31 (16) | Ref | 11 (20) |
| 65–84 | 1.00 (0.61 to 1.62) | 97 (14) | 1.43 (0.63 to 3.23) | 35 (13) | 0.87 (0.56 to 1.37) | 116 (15) | 1.03 (0.47 to 2.24) | 50 (20) |
| 85 or over | 1.19 (0.69 to 2.05) | 69 (12) | 1.15 (0.45 to 2.96) | 19 (11) | 0.64 (0.39 to 1.05) | 83 (13) | 0.99 (0.42 to 2.34) | 41 (16) |
| Gender | ||||||||
| Male | Ref | 108 (17) | Ref | 27 (10) | Ref | 113 (15) | Ref | 65 (21) |
| Female | 0.71 (0.51 to 0.99) | 85 (11) | 1.48 (0.84 to 2.62) | 36 (12) | 0.92 (0.69 to 1.22) | 117 (14) | 0.70 (0.43 to 1.12) | 37 (15) |
| Cause of death | ||||||||
| Non-cancer | Ref | 123 (14) | Ref | 39 (16) | Ref | 133 (15) | Ref | 63 (18) |
| Cancer | 1.24 (0.85 to 1.79) | 70 (13) | 0.61 (0.32 to 1.14) | 24 (8) | 0.71 (0.51 to 1.00) | 97 (13) | 0.88 (0.52 to 1.48) | 39 (18) |
| Contact with GP | ||||||||
| Less than 6 times | Ref | 168 (17) | Ref | 43 (18) | Ref | 127 (16) | Ref | 74 (21) |
| 6 times or more | 0.41 (0.26 to 0.66) | 25 (6) | 0.56 (0.29 to 1.10) | 20 (6) | 0.81 (0.60 to 1.08) | 103 (13) | 0.82 (0.50 to 1.36) | 28 (14) |
| Multidisciplinary palliative care involvement | ||||||||
| No | Ref | 144 (19) | Ref | 56 (14) | Ref | 145 (15) | Ref | 64 (19) |
| Yes | 0.39 (0.27 to 0.56) | 49 (7) | 0.35 (0.15 to 0.82) | 7 (4) | 0.98 (0.71 to 1.35) | 85 (14) | 0.81 (0.50 to 1.32) | 38 (17) |
| GP informed of patients’ preferred place of death | ||||||||
| No | Ref | 144 (17) | Ref | 40 (20) | Ref | 164 (15) | Ref | 89 (24) |
| Yes | 0.52 (0.36 to 0.74) | 49 (8) | 0.48 (0.25 to 0.91) | 23 (7) | 0.98 (0.72 to 1.35) | 66 (14) | 0.24 (0.13 to 0.44) | 13 (7) |
| Longest place of residence in the last year of life | ||||||||
| Nursing home/Care home | Ref | 41 (8) | Ref | 8 (7) | Ref | 7 (7) | Ref | 4 (6) |
| At home/with family | 1.94 (1.28 to 2.94) | 152 (16) | 2.61 (1.10 to 6.18) | 55 (13) | 2.17 (0.98 to 4.79) | 223 (15) | 4.72 (1.64 to 13.57) | 98 (20) |
*Cases with incomplete trajectories or missing data on one or several independent variables were excluded: BE: n=134 (8%), NL: n=67 (11%), IT: n=100 (5%), ES: n=163 (22%).
†Model statistics for multivariate logistic regression analyses: BE: Nagelkerke R2=0.13; NL: Nagelkerke R2=0.15; IT: Nagelkerke R2=0.02; ES: Nagelkerke R2=0.13.
Odds ratios in boldface indicate statistically significant associations. BE, Belgium; ES, Spain; IT, Italy; NL, the Netherlands.