Highlights
- •End-of-life hospitalizations of nursing home residents are common in Germany.
- •We found a small decrease over recent years in the proportion of in-hospital deaths.
- •No significant differences in hospitalization rates during the last 7, 14 and 30 days of life over a 10-year period were seen.
- •The length of terminal hospitalizations decreased over time.
- •More studies should examine longitudinal trends.
Abstract
Objectives
We investigated trends in end-of-life hospitalizations among nursing home residents
(NHR) over 10 years and looked at differences between age groups and sexes as well
as the length of terminal hospital stays.
Study design
Retrospective cohort study based on health insurance claims data of the AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven.
All NHR aged 65 years or more who died between 2006 and 2015 were included.
Main outcome measures
We assessed the proportions of decedents who were in hospital on the day of death
and during the last 3, 7, 14 and 30 days of life, stratified by two-year periods.
Multiple logistic regressions were conducted to study changes over time, adjusting
for covariates.
Results
A total of 10,781 decedents were included (mean age 86.1 years, 72.1 % females). Overall,
29.2 % died in hospital, with a slight decrease from 30.3 % in 2006–2007 to 28.3 %
in 2014–2015 (OR 0.86; 95 % CI 0.75–0.98). Of the 3150 terminal hospitalizations,
35.5 % lasted up to 3 days and the mean length of stay decreased from 9.0 (2006–2007)
to 7.5 days (2014–2015). When looking at the last 7, 14 and 30 days of life, no changes
over time were found. Male sex and younger age were associated with a higher chance
of end-of-life hospitalization in almost all analyses.
Conclusions
End-of-life hospitalizations of NHR are common in Germany. There has been a small
decrease during recent years in the proportion of in-hospital deaths, but not of hospitalizations
during the last 7, 14 and 30 days of life. This might be explained by shorter durations
of hospital stays.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 19, 2020
Accepted:
February 18,
2020
Received in revised form:
February 3,
2020
Received:
September 21,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
