Are Cancer Patients’ Socioeconomic and Cultural Factors Associated with Contact to General Practitioners in the Last Phase of Life?
Table 1
Characteristics of the 584 deceased cancer patients included in the analysis. Data derived from Danish health registers.
Sociodemographic characteristics and health utilisation
In all
( = 584)
Age of patient at time of death (mean years (95% CI))
70.8 (69.8; 71.8)
Age of patient at time of death ( (%))
18–59
119 (20.4)
60–74
236 (40.4)
75+
229 (39.2)
Patient gender ( (%))
Female
261 (44.7)
Male
323 (55.3)
Cancer diagnosis ( (%))
Bronchus/lung
111 (19.0)
Colon/rectum
90 (15.4)
Prostate
78 (13.4)
Breast
65 (11.1)
Others
240 (41.1)
Patient’s marital status ( (%))
Single
258 (44.2)
Married or cohabiting
326 (55.8)
Having children living at home ( (%))
No
551 (94.4)
Yes
33 (5.7)
Patient’s economic status ( (%))
High income (>20000 £/year)
219 (37.5)
Medium income (10001–20000 £/year)
330 (56.5)
Low income (0–10000 £/year)
35 (6.0)
Patient’s highest educational level ( (%))
Primary school
259 (50.4)
Vocational training
164 (31.9)
GCSE
8 (1.6)
Further education (1–4 years after GCSE)
61 (11.9)
Higher education (>4 years after GCSE)
22 (4.3)
Employment ( (%))
Unemployed, social security, student
79 (13.7)
Old age pensioner, early retirement pensioner
399 (69.3)
Employed or leadership position
98 (17.0)
Immigrant/nonimmigrant ( (%))
Not immigrant or descendant
563 (96.4)
Immigrant or descendant
21 (3.6)
Urbanity, inhabitants in municipality ( (%))
10,000 inhabitants
105 (18.0)
10,000–49,999 inhabitants
137 (23.5)
50,000–99,999 inhabitants
111 (19.0)
≥100,000 inhabitants
231 (39.6)
Place of death ( (%))
Home
194 (33.2)
Nursing home
138 (23.6)
Hospital or hospice
252 (43.2)
GP face-to-face contacts ( (%))
0 contacts
38 (6.5)
1 contact
66 (11.3)
2 contacts
64 (11.0)
3 contacts
81 (13.9)
4 contacts
88 (15.1)
5 contacts
53 (9.1)
≥6 contacts
194 (33.2)
GP home visits ( (%))
0 home visits
128 (21.9)
1 home visit
117 (20.0)
2-3 home visits
154 (26.4)
≥4 home visits
185 (31.7)
Involvement of a specialist palliative care team ( (%))
No
355 (60.8)
Yes
229 (39.2)
Days spent at hospital (median days (IQR))
11 (2; 21)
IQR: Inter Quartile Range. £: English Pounds. GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education. GP: general practitioner. In the last 90 days of the patients’ lives. Not all sums of percentages add up to 100.0% because of round-offs.
