Factors associated with place of death in koprean patients with terminal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate factors that affect the place of death (POD) of terminal cancer patients.


METHODS
We recruited 702 consecutive patients (>18 years) from 12 centers during July 2005 to October 2006, and 481 completed the questionnaire. In April 2011, we linked the data for 96.0% (n=462) of the deceased patients to the POD using the 2005-2009 death certificate data of Korea's National Statistical Office. The primary outcome variable was POD, and the predictive value of variables pertaining to patients and caregivers was evaluated using univariate and multivariate analyses.


RESULTS
Most patients died in a hospital (91.5%, n=441) and age, education, preference for place of terminal care, wish to use hospice/palliative care services, terminal cancer awareness, time between diagnosis and death, and global quality-of-life subscale of the EORTC QLQ-C30 of patients, and education and preference for place of terminal care of caregivers were significant predictors in univariate analyses. On multivariate analysis, patients and caregivers who preferred hospital/palliative care as the terminal care option over home care [adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 2.68; 95% confidential interval (CI), 1.18- 7.04 and aOR: 2.65; 95%CI: 1.15-6.09 for patient and caregiver preferences, respectively] and caregivers who were highly educated (aOR, 3.19; 95%CI, 1.44-7.06) were predictors of POD.


CONCLUSIONS
Most of the terminal cancer patients died in a hospital. Our findings indicate that major predictors of hospital deaths are preference of both the patient and caregiver for hospital/palliative care as the terminal care option and higher education of the caregiver.
National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency, Seoul, Korea E-mail : lawyun08@gmail.com.
Min Kyung
MK
Hyun
Kyung Hae
KH
Jung
Young Ho
YH
Yun
Young Ae
YA
Kim
Woo Jin
WJ
Lee
Young Rok
YR
Do
Keun Seok
KS
Lee
Dae Seog
DS
Heo
Jong Soo
JS
Choi
Sam Yong
SY
Kim
Heung Tae
HT
Kim
Seok-Won
SW
Kim
D001293:Attitude to Death; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology*; D057240:Patient Preference / Q000523:psychology*; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D056910:Republic of Korea; D015996:Survival Rate; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000639:trends*