ArticleCritical care (London, England)2015
Intensive care at the end of life in patients dying due to non-cancer chronic diseases versus cancer: a nationwide study in Denmark.
Article in Critical care (London, England), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating palliative care case conferences in primary care for patients with advanced non-malignant chronic conditions: a cluster-randomised controlled trial (KOPAL).Age and ageing · 2024Trial
- Aggressive end-of-life care among in-hospital decedents in China: differences by cancer status, timing, and associated factors.BMC palliative care · 2026Observational
- Development and validation of a prediction score for early identification of palliative care needs for patients in the intensive care unit: a multicentre retrospective cohort study.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Comparison of resuscitation intervention utilization in the emergency department by palliative care eligible patients between cancer and non-cancer.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Recommendations on palliative care aspects in intensive care medicine.Critical care (London, England) · 2023Review
- Survival and critical care use among people with dementia in a large English cohort.Age and ageing · 2023Article
- Emergency Department Referral for Hospice and Palliative Care Differs among Patients with Different End-of-Life Trajectories: A Retrospective Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Hospitalisation at the end of life among cancer and non-cancer patients in Denmark: a nationwide register-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2020Article
- Article
- Provision of renal care for patients with end stage kidney disease in persistent vegetative state, in United Arab Emirates: a national survey of renal physicians.The Libyan journal of medicine · 2018Article
- Critical care at the end of life: a population-level cohort study of cost and outcomes.Critical care (London, England) · 2017Article
- Nurses' Perceptions Regarding End-of-life Care for Individuals with Non-cancer Diseases on Non-invasive Positive Pressure Ventilation-dependent: A Qualitative and Descriptive Study.Indian journal of palliative careArticle
- End-of-Life Care Patterns by Disease Trajectory in Pediatric Intensive Care Units: A Multicenter Study.Pediatrics international : official journal of the Japan Pediatric SocietyObservational
- Effect of a palliative care program on trends in intensive care unit utilization and do-not-resuscitate orders during terminal hospitalizations. An interrupted time series analysis.Revista Brasileira de terapia intensivaArticle
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionIt is unknown to what extent use of palliative care and focus on proactive planning of end-of-life (EOL) care among cancer patients is also reflected by less use of intensive care. We aimed to examine the use of intensive care in the EOL in patients dying as a result of non-cancer diseases compared with patients dying due to cancer.
methodsWe conducted a nationwide follow-up study among 240,757 adults dying as a result of either non-cancer chronic disease or cancer in Denmark between 2005 and 2011. Using the Danish Intensive Care Database, we identified all admissions and treatments in intensive care units (ICU) during the patients' last 6 months before death. We used prevalence ratios (aPRs) adjusted for age, sex, comorbidity, marital status and residential region to compare the 6-month prevalence of ICU admissions as well as treatment with invasive mechanical ventilation (MV), non-invasive ventilation (NIV), renal replacement therapy (RRT) and inotropes and/or vasopressors. In addition, length of ICU stay and death during ICU admission were compared among non-cancer and cancer patients dying between 2009 and 2011.
resultsOverall 12.3 % of non-cancer patients were admitted to an ICU within their last 6 months of life, compared with 8.7 % of cancer patients. The overall aPR for ICU admission was 2.11 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.98-2.24] for non-cancer patients compared with cancer patients and varied widely within the non-cancer patients (patients with dementia, aPR 0.19, 95 % CI 0.17-0.21; patients with chronic obstructive lung disease, aPR 3.19, 95 % CI 2.97-3.41). The overall aPRs for treatment among non-cancer patients compared with cancer patients were 1.40 (95 % CI 1.35-1.46) for MV, 1.62 (95 % CI 1.50-1.76) for NIV, 1.19 (95 % CI 1.07-1.31) for RRT and 1.05 (95 % CI 0.87-1.28) for inotropes and/or vasopressors. No difference in admission length was observed. Non-cancer patients had an increased risk of dying in an ICU (aPR 1.23, 95 % CI 0.99-1.54) compared with cancer patients.
conclusionsOverall, patients dying as a result of non-cancer diseases were twice as likely to be admitted to ICUs at the EOL as patients dying due to cancer. Further studies are warranted to explore whether this difference in use of intensive care reflects an unmet need of palliative care, poor communication about the EOL or lack of prognostic tools for terminally ill non-cancer patients.
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