Use of chemotherapy at the end of life among Taiwanese cancer decedents, 2001–2006

Figures & data

Table I. Table I. Determinants of using chemotherapy in the last month of life for Taiwanese cancer decedents, 2001–2006.

	Decedents
Parameter	n	%	Chemo-therapy (%)	Adjusted odds ratio	95% Confidence limits		p
Year ^a				1.02	0.99	1.04	0.22
Gender
Male	131 614	64.3	17.0	1.19	1.13	1.25	< 0.0001
Female	73 236	35.8	17.1	Ref ^b
Age (years)
< 65	83 072	40.6	25.8	Ref
65–74	55 400	27.0	15.1	0.59	0.57	0.62	< 0.0001
75–84	52 073	25.4	8.9	0.35	0.32	0.37	< 0.0001
≥ 85	14 305	7.0	3.3	0.15	0.12	0.17	< 0.0001
Marital status
Married	141 157	68.9	18.2	Ref
Single	14 591	7.1	23.5	1.21	1.09	1.35	0.0005
Divorced/separated	6843	3.3	21.0	0.95	0.87	1.03	0.19
Widowed	38 674	18.9	9.7	0.89	0.84	0.93	< 0.0001
Comorbidities ^c
0 or 1	96 281	47.0	22.4	Ref
2	39 421	19.2	16.0	0.89	0.85	0.93	< 0.0001
3	23 526	11.5	13.5	0.78	0.75	0.82	< 0.0001
≥ 4	45 622	22.3	8.3	0.61	0.57	0.66	< 0.0001
Cancer group
Lung	40 680	19.9	20.1	Ref
Hematological	11 444	5.6	40.9	1.90	1.55	2.34	< 0.0001
Breast	7701	3.8	28.9	1.24	1.08	1.43	0.003
Liver	40 431	19.7	5.9	0.29	0.24	0.37	< 0.0001
Brain	2728	1.3	7.6	0.30	0.23	0.41	< 0.0001
Prostate	4617	2.3	4.2	0.30	0.23	0.38	< 0.0001
Pancreatic/bile duct	11 982	5.9	14.0	0.55	0.48	0.64	< 0.0001
Esophageal	6661	3.3	19.9	0.59	0.50	0.70	< 0.0001
Head and neck	17 040	8.3	23.9	0.79	0.70	0.90	0.0004
Gastric	13 993	6.8	16.9	0.81	0.69	0.96	0.01
Colon-rectum	21 998	10.7	15.7	0.82	0.73	0.91	0.0003
Other	25 575	12.5	16.7	0.66	0.60	0.73	< 0.0001
Metastasis
No	77 351	37.8	11.5	Ref
Yes	127 499	62.2	20.4	1.36	1.27	1.46	< 0.0001
Post-diagnosis survival (months)
1–2	29 970	16.1	12.6	Ref
3–6	36 763	19.8	21.3	1.62	1.48	1.77	< 0.0001
7–12	33 154	17.9	21.5	1.23	1.09	1.39	0.0008
13–24	34 003	18.3	19.1	0.94	0.83	1.07	0.38
≥ 25	51 890	27.9	15.0	0.72	0.63	0.83	< 0.0001
Primary physician's specialty
Other	159 249	77.7	11.1	Ref
Oncologist	45 601	22.3	37.7	3.49	3.04	3.99	< 0.0001
Hospital teaching status
No	19 555	9.6	7.2	Ref
Yes	184 882	90.4	18.1	1.39	1.11	1.74	0.004
Hospital beds
<Q1	50 982	25.0	8.7	Ref
Q1–Q3	100 033	49.0	17.7	1.18	0.84	1.67	0.34
>Q3	53 191	26.1	23.9	1.63	0.99	2.68	0.05
Hospital availability of hospice service
No	120 730	58.9	15.3	Ref
Yes	84 120	41.1	19.4	0.88	0.58	1.35	0.56
Regional hospice beds/10 000 population				0.84	0.52	1.37	0.49
Regional hospital beds
<Q1	50 861	24.9	13.8	Ref
Q1–Q3	98 132	48.0	18.1	1.12	0.96	1.32	0.15
>Q3	55 385	27.1	18.2	1.11	0.91	1.35	0.32

Q, quartile

^a For each successive year

^b Reference group

^c Comorbidities were assessed by the Deyo-Charlson comorbidity index