Exploring Risk Factors of Unexpected Death, Using Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) Measures, among Terminal Patients Receiving Palliative Care in Taiwan

Wen-Hsuan Hsiao, Chun-Li Wang, Lung-Chun Lee, Szu-Pei Chien, Chin-Chu Hsu and Wei-Min Chu ()
Additional contact information
Wen-Hsuan Hsiao: Department of Medical Education, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan
Chun-Li Wang: Department of Family Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan
Lung-Chun Lee: Department of Family Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan
Szu-Pei Chien: Department of Family Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan
Chin-Chu Hsu: Department of Nursing, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan
Wei-Min Chu: Department of Family Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-12

Abstract: Palliative care has the ability to relieve both physical discomfort and psychological distress in terminally ill patients. However, unexpected death may still occur in palliative care settings. This study aimed to utilize Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) data to better determine any associated factors which may surround unexpected death in palliative care settings. Data were extracted from the PCOC database by the palliative care team within Taichung Veterans General Hospital (TCVGH). Data of deceased patients were extracted during the period from January 2021 to December 2021 from multiple palliative care settings. The deaths of patients whose last recorded palliative phase was 1–3 were defined as unexpected. A total of 280 deceased patients were included, with mean age at death being 67.73, 61% being male, and 83.2% cancer patients. We discovered that shortness of breath, as assessed by the Symptom Assessment Scale (SAS), decreased risk of unexpected death (OR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.84–0.98), while impending death discharge (OR: 3.93, 95% CI: 1.20–12.94) and a higher Australia-modified Karnofsky performance status (AKPS) score (OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.10–1.21) were associated with unexpected death. Thus, medical staff must inform the family of patients early on regarding any risk factors surrounding unexpected death to help everyone involved be prepared in advance.

Keywords: unexpected death; palliative care; Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration; end-of-life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13294/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13294/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13294-:d:943000

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().