Palliative care consultation in the last week of life and associated factors: a cross-sectional general population study.

Background: Knowledge of access to palliative care services, such as palliative care consultation teams, is crucial to identify areas of improvement for policy and practice. Research on general populations spanning all disease groups and multiple healthcare contexts is needed.

Objective: The objective was to investigate the sociodemographic, disease- and care-related, and care structure-related factors associated with palliative care consultations for adult patients in the last week of life.

Design: Cross-sectional, general population-level study based on linked Swedish national public authority registers and a national palliative care quality register.

Methods: The study population included all adult patients deceased in Sweden between 2013 and 2019 and registered in the Swedish Register of Palliative Care, with an anticipated death, and not enrolled in specialised palliative care. Multivariable logistic regression analyses to investigate association with palliative care consultations.

Results: In total, 8.2% of the 265,129 participants had received a palliative care consultation in the last week of life. The main multivariable analysis (Model 1) showed that those dying from neoplasms were more likely to receive a palliative care consultation (odds ratio (OR) 8.55, 95% CI 8.15-8.98) than those dying from circulatory diseases. Palliative care consultation was more likely with an increasing number of symptoms (OR 1.35, CI 1.32-1.37). Patients of old age and patients deceased in hospitals were less likely to receive a palliative care consultation. Moreover, factors such as educational attainment, healthcare region, living in a single-person household, and year of death were also associated with a palliative care consultation in the last week of life.

Conclusion: Our findings show inequities in access to palliative care consultations in the last week of life. Considering changes to policy and clinical practice is motivated.