Quality of care in the last year of life: adaptation and validation of the German “Views of Informal Carers’ Evaluation of Services – Last Year of Life – Cologne”

Table 1 Demographics and characteristics of deceased patients and informants (N = 351)

	n	(%)
Deceased age at death (years)
18–29	1	(0.3)
30–49	6	(1.7)
50–64	65	(18.5)
65–79	112	(31.9)
80+	167	(47.6)
Deceased gender
Female	183	(52.1)
Male	168	(47.9)
Deceased ethnic group
German	340	(96.9)
Other	11	(3.1)
Deceased illnesses in the last year of life^a
Cancer	209	(59.5)
Cardiovascular disease	142	(40.5)
Neuro-psychological disease	115	(32.8)
Disease of the respiratory system	103	(29.3)
Kidney disease	52	(14.8)
Diabetes mellitus	45	(12.8)
Liver disease	15	(4.3)
Settings/Providers of care^b
Stayed in hospital (n = 350)^c	320	(91.4)
General practitioner (n = 349)^c	305	(87.4)
Outpatient specialist physician (n = 350)^c	270	(77.1)
Homecare: nursing service (n = 348)^c	157	(45.1)
Homecare: specialist palliative home care team (n = 348)^c	135	(38.8)
Stayed in care home (n = 335)^c	75	(22.4)
Stayed in hospice (n = 340)^c	64	(18.8)
Homecare: hospice volunteers (n = 348)^c	23	(6.6)
Place of death
Hospital	148	(42.2)
At home	97	(27.6)
Hospice	61	(17.4)
Care home	41	(11.7)
Somewhere else	4	(1.1)
Informant relation to deceased
Spouse	149	(42.5)
Son/daughter	138	(39.3)
Other relative	44	(12.5)
Friend	12	(3.4)
Other	8	(2.3)
Informant age (years)
18–29	2	(0.6)
30–49	46	(13.1)
50–64	154	(43.9)
65–79	118	(33.6)
80+	31	(8.8)
Informant gender
Female	251	(71.5)
Male	100	(28.5)

^a Multiple responses were possible
^b For each specific setting/healthcare provider, informants could indicate whether the decedent had at least one contact at any time during his/her last year of life (e.g. “Did your relative stay in hospital at any time during the last year of life?”, “Did your relative receive care by a GP in the last year of life?”)
^c Due to missing data, the individual n are indicated
See also Schippel et al. [67] and Voltz et al. [56]

ISSN: 1472-6963