PMID- 23646293
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20141118
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 2193-1801 (Print)
IS  - 2193-1801 (Electronic)
IS  - 2193-1801 (Linking)
VI  - 2
IP  - 1
DP  - 2013 Dec
TI  - Patients attended by palliative care teams: are they always comparable 
      populations?
PG  - 177
LID - 10.1186/2193-1801-2-177 [doi]
LID - 177
AB  - Patients attended by palliative care teams: are they always comparable 
      populations? To answer this question we have compared the basic epidemiological 
      characteristics of patients attended by home palliative care teams (HPCT) in two 
      autonomous regions of Spain. We carried out a coordinated analytical, 
      observational and prospective study in two Spanish autonomous regions: Aragon and 
      Catalonia. Data were kept during each home care visit according to patients' 
      needs. Inclusion criteria were: advanced cancer, over 18 years old and first 
      contact with a HPCT. The recruitment period was 6 months. Variables included 
      were: Survival time (days), age, sex, primary disease and extension, place of 
      residence. Functional and cognitive state, and co-morbidity. 10 signs/symptoms: 
      asthenia, anorexia, cachexia, dysphagia, xerostomy, dyspnoea, oedemas, level of 
      consciousness, presence of delirium, presence of pressure ulcers and some 
      treatment data. Others variables considered were: responsible team, origin, 
      destination when discharge, date and place of death, number of visits made and 
      duration of monitoring. We developed a comparison between groups by Chi-squared 
      test or the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test and a survival analysis by 
      Kaplan-Meier curves and the logrank test to determine differences between 
      factors. The SPSS version 15.0 software package was used. 698 patients were 
      included, 56.2% from Aragon and 43.8% from Catalonia. 60.3% were males, without 
      differences between the regions. Characteristics relative to age, sex, place of 
      residence and extension of oncological diseases were similar for both groups. We 
      found significant differences between the two populations relative to survival 
      time, co-morbidity, functional state, presence and intensity of a number of 
      symptoms and the treatments, patient monitoring and the their destination after 
      discharge. We can conclude that palliative care teams cover different profiles of 
      patients with regard to their co-morbidity, functional, cognitive and symptomatic 
      states. It must be pointed that the organization of palliative care services and 
      their experience appears to condition the profile of patients they attend. There 
      is a need of consensus on the basic descriptors for palliative care patients in 
      order to ensure that results will be comparable.
FAU - Nabal, Maria
AU  - Nabal M
AD  - Family and Community Medicine, Palliative Care Support Team, Arnau de Vilanova 
      University Hospital, ICS Institut de Reserca Biomedica de Lleida (IRBL), Lleida, 
      Spain ; Ufiss Cuidados Paliativos, Hospital Universitario Arnau de Vilanova, Av. 
      Rovira Roure 80, Lleida, 25198 Spain.
FAU - Barcons, Miquel
AU  - Barcons M
FAU - Moreno, Roberto
AU  - Moreno R
FAU - Busquets, Xavier
AU  - Busquets X
FAU - Trujillano, Javier J
AU  - Trujillano JJ
FAU - Requena, Antonio
AU  - Requena A
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20130422
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Springerplus
JT  - SpringerPlus
JID - 101597967
PMC - PMC3642365
EDAT- 2013/05/07 06:00
MHDA- 2013/05/07 06:01
PMCR- 2013/04/22
CRDT- 2013/05/07 06:00
PHST- 2013/01/31 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2013/04/11 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2013/05/07 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2013/05/07 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2013/05/07 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2013/04/22 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 219 [pii]
AID - 10.1186/2193-1801-2-177 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Springerplus. 2013 Apr 22;2(1):177. doi: 10.1186/2193-1801-2-177. Print 2013 Dec.