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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Geographic variation in hospice use prior to death | | Author(s) | Beth A Virnig, Sara Kind, Marshall McBean |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 48, no 9, September 2000 |
| Pages | pp 1117-1125 |
| Keywords | Terminal care ; Usage [services] ; Death rate [statistics] ; Neighbourhoods, communities etc ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | US Medicare administrative data formed the basis for this study of the rate of hospice use per 1000 older Medicare beneficiary deaths in 1996. Overall, 155 per 1000 who died were found to have used a hospice before death. The rate is significantly higher among the younger old, those living in wealthier areas, non-blacks, and those in urban areas. Areas with a higher proportion of non-cancer diagnoses among hospice users have higher rates of hospice use for cancer and non-cancer reasons than areas for most hospice users having cancer diagnoses. Hospice use is higher in areas with fewer hospital beds per capita, areas with lower in-hospital death rates, and areas with higher HMO enrolment. Rates of hospice use are also positively related to average reimbursements for health care and to physicians per capita. For each state's centre of highest population, rates of hospice use vary more than 11-fold from a low of 35.15 (Portland, ME) to a high of 397.2 per 1000 deaths (Fort Lauderdale, FL). The findings suggest that use of hospice services is a complex decision influenced by patient and community characteristics. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-001020215 A |
| Classmark | LV: QLD: S5: RH: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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