More Americans are spending their last days of life at home, and fewer of them are now dying in hospitals, according to a new study.
This is good news because, according to previous studies, 80 percent of Americans prefer to spend their last days comfortably and peacefully at home with their families and relatives.
Dying At Home Rather Than In Hospitals
In the new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on June 25, researchers analyzed records of 871,845 Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and 1.36 million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who passed away between the years 2000 and 2015.
Results
The researchers found that in 2015 people insured by Medicare, the U.S. national health insurance program, were more likely to pass away in a home rather than in hospitals.
In addition, the proportion of the seniors admitted to intensive care units during their last weeks of life stabilized after rising from 2000 to 2009.
In 2015, 29 percent of people insured by Medicare spent a part of their last months in the intensive care unit. From 2000 to 2015, the number of patients who died in acute-care hospitals dropped from 32.6 percent to 19.8 percent.
Back in 2013, Joan Teno and her colleagues, who were all part of the current study, found that the number of Medicare enrollees dying at home increased from 23.5 percent in 2000 to around 33.5 percent in 2009.
By 2009, only twenty-nine percent of the enrollees died in hospitals and 42 percent died in hospice care.
Is Dying At Home Better?
The answer to this question, according to Teno and her team, is not that simple and would depend on the experiences of patients. One patient may spend her last week at home, but her last day in the hospital, while, others may spend their last days being transferred from place to place.
However, some considered dying at home as a quality measure for end-of-life care and believe that it may be very beneficial and less stressful for patients, especially those who are terminally ill.
In a previous study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine and based on questionnaires, researchers found that people who die at home experience more peace and a similar amount of pain compared to those who die in hospitals. They also found that the relatives of the patients also experience less grief.
Spending Last Days In Hospitals Rather Than At Home
Previous studies have shown that most Americans would prefer to spend their last days of life at home. In the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, more people appear to take this side, while Japan and some European countries people prefer to spend their last days in hospitals.
Most Japanese, for example, opt to spend their last days of life in hospitals because they feel hospitals are safer.
