Pediatric Palliative Care Patients: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe demographic and clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients who received hospital-based pediatric palliative care (PPC) consultations. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: Prospective observational cohort study of all patients served by 6 hospital-based PPC teams in the United States and Canada from January to March 2008. RESULTS: There were 515 new (35.7%) or established (64.3%) patients who received care from the 6 programs during the 3-month enrollment interval. Of these, 54.0% were male, and 69.5% were identified as white and 8.1% as Hispanic. Patient age ranged from less than one month (4.7%) to 19 years or older (15.5%). Of the patients, 60.4% lived with both parents, and 72.6% had siblings. The predominant primary clinical conditions were genetic/congenital (40.8%), neuromuscular (39.2%), cancer (19.8%), respiratory (12.8%), and gastrointestinal (10.7%). Most patients had chronic use of some form of medical technology, with gastrostomy tubes (48.5%) being the most common. At the time of consultation, 47.2% of the patients had cognitive impairment; 30.9% of the cohort experienced pain. Patients were receiving many medications (mean: 9.1). During the 12-month follow-up, 30.3% of the cohort died; the median time from consult to death was 107 days. Patients who died within 30 days of cohort entry were more likely to be infants and have cancer or cardiovascular conditions. CONCLUSIONS: PPC teams currently serve a diverse cohort of children and young adults with life-threatening conditions. In contrast to the reported experience of adult-oriented palliative care teams, most PPC patients are alive for more than a year after initiating PPC.