Trends in end-of-life cancer care in the Medicare program.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To examine contemporary trends in end-of-life cancer care and geographic variation of end-of-life care aggressiveness among Medicare beneficiaries.

Materials and methods

Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare data, we identified 132,051 beneficiaries who died as a result of cancer in 2006-2011. Aggressiveness of end-of-life care was measured by chemotherapy received within 14 days of death, >1 emergency department (ED) visit within 30 days of death, >1 hospitalization within 30 days of death, ≥1 intensive care unit (ICU) admission within 30 days of death, in-hospital death, or hospice enrollment ≤3 days before death. Using hierarchical generalized linear models, we assessed potentially aggressive end-of-life care adjusting for patient demog

SUBMITTER: Wang SY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5577563 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature