End-of-life cost and its determinants for cancer patients in urban China: a population-based retrospective study

This study aimed to define the end-of-life (EOL) healthcare utilisation and its cost and determinants for cancer patients and to proactively inform related strategies in mainland China.

A population-based retrospective study.

Data from 894 cancer patients were collected in urban Yichang, China from 01 July 2015 to 30 June 2017.

Emergency department (ED) visits, outpatient and inpatient hospitalisation services, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and total costs were used as the main outcomes.

In this study, 66.8% of the 894 patients were male, and the average age was 60.4 years. Among these patients, 37.6% died at home, and patients had an average of 4.86 outpatient services, 2.23 inpatient hospitalisation services and 1.44 ED visits. Additionally, 5.9% of these patients visited the ICU at least once. During the EOL periods, the costs in the last 6 months, 3 months, 1 month and 1 week were US$18 234, US$13 043, US$6349 and US$2085, respectively. The cost increased dramatically as death approached. The estimation results of generalised linear regression models showed that aggressive care substantially affected expenditure. Patients with Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance spent more than those with Urban Resident-based Basic Medical Insurance or the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme. The place of death and the survival time are also risk factors for increased EOL cost.

The findings suggested that the EOL cost for cancer patients is associated with aggressive care, insurance type and survival time. Timing palliative care is urgently needed to address ineffective and irrational healthcare utilisation and to reduce costs.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (IORG No.: IORG0003571). All the data used in this study were de-identified.