How long do you think? Unresponsive dying patients in a specialist palliative care service: a consecutive cohort study.

O'Connor, Tricia; Liu, Wai-Man; Samara, Juliane; Lewis, Joanne; Paterson, Catherine

Abstract

Predicting length of time to death once the person is unresponsive and deemed to be dying remains uncertain. Knowing approximately how many hours or days dying loved ones have left is crucial for families and clinicians to guide decision-making and plan end-of-life care. To determine the length of time between becoming unresponsive and death, and whether age, gender, diagnosis or location-of-care predicted length of time to death. Retrospective cohort study. Time from allocation of an Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Status (AKPS) 10 to death was analysed using descriptive narrative. Interval-censored survival analysis was used to determine the duration of patient's final phase of life, taking into account variation across age, gender, diagnosis and location of death. A total of 786 patients, 18 years of age or over, who received specialist palliative care: as hospice in-patients, in the community and in aged care homes, between January 1st and October 31st, 2022. The time to death after a change to AKPS 10 is 2 days (n = 382; mean = 2.1; median = 1). Having adjusted for age, cancer, gender, the standard deviation of AKPS for the 7-day period prior to death, the likelihood of death within 2 days is 47%, with 84% of patients dying within 4 days. This study provides valuable new knowledge to support clinicians' confidence when responding to the 'how long' question and can inform decision-making at end-of-life. Further research using the AKPS could provide greater certainty for answering 'how long' questions across the illness trajectory.

Citation

O'CONNOR, T., LIU, W.-M., SAMARA, J., LEWIS, J. and PATERSON, C. 2024. How long do you think? Unresponsive dying patients in a specialist palliative care service: a consecutive cohort study. Palliative medicine [online], Ahead of Print. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163241238

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 23, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 23, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 6, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 6, 2024
• Journal: Palliative medicine
• Print ISSN: 0269-2163
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-030X
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/02692163241238
• Keywords: Cohort study; Palliative care; Terminally ill; Prognosis; Australia-modified Karnofsky performance status; Terminal care; Unresponsive; Dying; Prognostication
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2332488