Disparities in Palliative Care Among Critically Ill Patients With and Without COVID-19 at the End of Life: A...

The surge in critical illness and associated mortality brought by the coronavirus virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, coupled with staff shortages and restrictions of family visitation, may have adversely affected delivery of palliative measures, including at the end of life of affected patients. However, the population-level patterns of palliative care (PC) utilization among septic critically ill patients with and without COVID-19 during end-of-life hospitalizations are unknown.

A statewide dataset was used to identify patients aged ≥ 18 years with intensive care unit (ICU) admission and a diagnosis of sepsis in Texas, who died during hospital stay during April 1 to December 31, 2020. COVID-19 was defined by the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) code U07.1, and PC was identified by ICD-10 code Z51.5. Multivariable logistic models were fitted to estimate the association of COVID-19 with use of PC among ICU admissions. A similar approach was used for sensitivity analyses of strata with previously reported lower and higher than reference use of PC.

There were 20,244 patients with sepsis admitted to ICU during terminal hospitalization, and 9,206 (45.5%) had COVID-19. The frequency of PC among patients with and without COVID-19 was 32.0% vs. 37.1%, respectively. On adjusted analysis, the odds of PC use remained lower among patients with COVID-19 (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 0.84, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78 - 0.90), with similar findings on sensitivity analyses.

PC was markedly less common among critically ill septic patients with COVID-19 during terminal hospitalization, compared to those without COVID-19. Further studies are needed to determine the factors underlying these findings in order to reduce disparities in use of PC.