Trends and determinants of place of death among Chinese lymphoma patients: a population-based study from 2013-2021

Am J Cancer Res. 2023 Sep 15;13(9):4246-4258. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Limited research exists on factors influencing the place of death (POD) or hospital deaths among lymphoma patients in China, despite the country's significant burden of lymphoid neoplasms. This study aimed to describe the distribution of POD among lymphoma patients and identify the factors associated with hospital lymphoma deaths to provide evidence for developing targeted healthcare policies. Data in this study were obtained from the National Mortality Surveillance System (NMSS). The distribution of POD among individuals who died from lymphoma was analyzed, and factors influencing the choice of dying in the hospital were examined. Chi-square test was employed to analyze the differences in characteristic distributions. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was identify the relationship between hospital deaths due to lymphoma and individual factors, as well as socioeconomic contextual variables. During 2013-2021, there were 66772 lymphoma deaths reported by the NMSS, including 44327 patients (66.39%) who died at home and 21211 (31.77%) died in the hospital. Female patients, those had a higher level of educational attainment, retired individuals, those died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, residents of urban areas, patients between the ages of 0 and 14, and unmarried individuals had a higher probability of dying in hospitals. Improving health care providers' understanding of palliative care for cancer patients and prioritizing accessible services are essential to enhance the quality of end-of-life care. These approaches ensure the equitable allocation of healthcare resources and provide diverse options for minorities with specific preferences regarding end-of-life care.

Keywords: China; Lymphoma; associated factors; place of death; spatial variations; trends.