Objective: Examine demographic characteristics of patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease who die in hospital by secondary analysis of the National Inpatient Sample.

Background: As a progressive neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure, palliation and end-of-life management are important and inevitable considerations for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Prior studies have indicated that most patients prefer to die at home rather than in hospital [1]. Our study seeks to elucidate demographic and regional differences of Parkinson disease patients who die in hospital so as to inform clinicians of patients or regions in which patients may be more likely of dying in hospital.

Method: Secondary analysis of National Inpatient Survey patients whose admission resulted in death in hospital and for whom Parkinson’s disease was among their documented diagnoses. Demographic characteristics including sex (male, female), race (white, black, hispanic, asian or pacific islander, native american, other), age, and hospital region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West) among these patients were compiled and compared. Furthermore, relative quantity of in-hospital deaths among patient’s with Parkinson’s disease year-by-year was conducted and evaluated by Cochran-Armitage test for trend.

Results: The results of a Cochran-Armitage test for trend suggested the rates of death in the hospital of individuals with a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis varied over the 2000-2016 period, z = 20.36, p < .001. Future analyses will examine if patient-level and hospital-level demographics predict if an individual with Parkinson’s disease dies in the hospital.

Conclusion: Our examination of the National Inpatient Sample by secondary analysis provides insight into how in-hospitality mortality of patients with Parkinson’s disease are nonuniform and may be influenced by their individual and regional demographic characteristics. Further, our study demonstrates year-by-year variation of the relative quantity of in-hospital mortality among these patients to establish trend over time. Our results inform clinicians and caregivers to allow cognizance of the demographic characteristics of Parkinson’s disease patients to best inform palliative and end-of-life management.

References: Gomes, B., Calanzani, N., Gysels, M. et al. Heterogeneity and changes in preferences for dying at home: a systematic review. BMC Palliat Care 12, 7 (2013).

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/demographic-characteristics-of-in-hospital-deaths-among-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/