Original Paper
Ecological study of the relationship between the rate of death at home and medico-socioeconomic characteristics in Kanagawa prefecture (Japan)
2021 Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 1-13
Details
2021 Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 1-13
Background： No ecological study has yet been performed on the associations between various medical/social indicators and pure “attended deaths at home,” excluding unattended or abnormal deaths subjected to a postmortem examination．Therefore, in this study, we investigated these associations in order to provide reference data for the future development of home health care.
Methods： We divided deaths that occurred in each municipality in Kanagawa Prefecture into two categories: “examined deaths” and “attended deaths,” which were also stratified by the place of death．Furthermore, we performed statistical analyses to elucidate the 23 associations between the proportion of attended deaths at home and major medical/social indicators according to the secondary medical care region.
Results： In 2014, home deaths accounted for 15.7% of all deaths in the prefecture，whereas the overall proportion of attended deaths at home was 6.9%．According to the multiple regression analysis, the number of general clinics that did not support home care but provided home visiting medical services（per capita）had a significant, independent association with the proportion of attended deaths at home．
Conclusions：It is possible general clinics that do not specialize in home care can still have considerable influence on home health care in each region．
