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Trend analysis of quality indicators in palliative home care among terminally ill cancer and non-cancer patients in Taiwan: a 6-year observational study

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Abstract

Purpose

Palliative home care services (PHCS) have been emerging for years. However, limited data exist regarding quality indicators for pain control, unplanned hospital readmissions, and household deaths among terminal cancer and non-cancer patients receiving PHCS.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective collection and recording of data from 1242 terminally ill cancer and non-cancer patients receiving PHCS. The data were obtained from the Hospice-Palliative Clinical Database (HPCD) of Taichung Veterans General Hospital (TCVGH) for the period from 2016 to 2021. T test and chi-square test were applied for characteristics and the quality indicators among cancer and non-cancer groups. Chi-square test was used for trend analysis of the number of patients receiving PHCS and the quality indicators among cancer and non-cancer groups throughout the study period.

Results

A total of 1242 terminally ill cancer and non-cancer patients who had received PHCS were documented by TCVGH from the years 2016 to 2021, including 221 non-cancer patients and 1021 cancer patients having an average age of 70. The number of terminally ill cancer and non-cancer patients receiving PHCS has increased annually since 2016. Another finding was that age was a statistically significant factor impacting quality indicators. On the other hand, compared to non-cancer patients, cancer patients had a higher likelihood of receiving treatment with analgesics when needed. Their odds of needing analgesics more than three times within 4 days after PHCS enrollment were significantly elevated [OR 4.188, 95% CI (1.002, 17.51)].

Conclusion

The results of this 6-year observational study indicate a substantial increase in the number of terminal cancer and non-cancer patients receiving PHCS over the past decade. Furthermore, aging plays an important role in life quality of terminal cancer and non-cancer patients.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are not publicity available, but are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request with the permission of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our colleagues from Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan for providing support in both statistical analysis and English editing.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ya-Huei Juang and Wei-Min Chu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Education, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Hao-Hsun Chung

  2. Department of Family Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 1650 Taiwan Boulevard Sect. 4, Taichung, Taiwan, 40705

    Chun-Li Wang, Jia-Jyun Wu, Lung-Chun Lee & Wei-Min Chu

  3. Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chun-Li Wang

  4. Institute of Health Policy and Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jia-Jyun Wu

  5. College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Szu-Pei Chien

  6. Department of Nursing, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Ya-Huei Juang

  7. School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wei-Min Chu

  8. Department of Post‐Baccalaureate Medicine, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chun-Li Wang, Jia-Jyun Wu & Wei-Min Chu

  9. Geriatrics and Gerontology Research Center, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Wei-Min Chu

  10. Department of Epidemiology On Aging, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Aichi, Japan

    Wei-Min Chu

Authors
  1. Hao-Hsun Chung
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Contributions

Conceptualization, Wei-Min Chu; methodology, Wei-Min Chu; software, Szu-Pei Chien; validation, Ya-Huei Juang. and Wei-Min Chu; formal analysis, Szu-Pei Chien; investigation, Ya-Huei Juang and Wei-Min Chu; resources, Chun-Li Wang, Jia-Jyun Wu and Lung-Chun Lee; data curation, Ya-Huei Juang; writing-original draft preparation, Wei-Min Chu and Hao-Hsun Chung; writing-review and editing, Wei-Min Chu and Hao-Hsun Chung; supervision, Wei-Min Chu; project administration, Lung-Chun Lee; funding acquisition, Wei-Min Chu. Ya-Huei Juang and Wei-Min Chu contributed equally. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ya-Huei Juang or Wei-Min Chu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of Taichung Veterans General Hospital (Protocol code: TCVGH-IRB CE20362A and Date of approval: December 2, 2020).

Consent to participate and publication

The Institutional Review Board of Taichung Veterans General Hospital approved this study and deemed that informed consent should be waived owing to the retrospective nature of the study.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Chung, HH., Wang, CL., Wu, JJ. et al. Trend analysis of quality indicators in palliative home care among terminally ill cancer and non-cancer patients in Taiwan: a 6-year observational study. Support Care Cancer 32, 75 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-08277-2

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