Time to End-of-Life of Patients Starting Specialised Palliative Care in Denmark: A Descriptive Register-Based Cohort Study

Increasing numbers of patients are being referred to specialised palliative care (SPC) which, in order to be beneficial, is recommended to last more than three months. This cohort study aimed to describe time to end-of-life after initiating SPC treatment and to explore potential regional variations. We used national register data from all Danish hospital SPC teams. We included patients who started SPC treatment from 2015–2018 to explore if time to end-of-life was longer than three months. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the data and a generalised linear model was used to assess variations among the five Danish regions. A total of 27,724 patients were included, of whom 36.7% (95% CI 36.2–37.1%) had over three months to end-of-life. In the Capital Region of Denmark, 40.1% (95% CI 39.0–41.3%) had over three months to end-of-life versus 32.5% (95% CI 30.9–34.0%) in North Denmark Region. We conclude that most patients live for a shorter period of time than the recommended three months after initiating SPC treatment. This is neither optimal for patient care, nor the healthcare system. A geographical variation between regions was shown indicating different practices, patient groups or resources. These results warrant further investigation to promote optimal SPC treatment.