Inequity in the provision of and access to palliative care for cancer patients. Results from the Italian survey of the dying of cancer (ISDOC)

Table 1 places of care of Italian cancer patients in the last three months of life.

	North West	North East	Center	South	Italy
Survey sample	604	209	241	217	1,271
Italian cancer deaths ³	47,988	32,954	35,772	38,732	155,446
Place of care ¹	% ²	% ²	% ²	% ²	% ²
Home	89.1	83.0	92.7	97.8	90.8
Hospital	66.4	73.5	63.5	51.2	63.4
Nursing home	11.9	13.5	6.5	0.9	8.3
Hospice	0.5	1.4	1.1	-	0.7
Places of care (in detail)
Only home	26.9	17.0	32.3	47.9	31.3
Only nursing home	5.5	7.7	3.9	0.9	4.5
Only hospital	2.7	6.5	1.7	1.3	2.9
Home and hospital	58.0	61.7	58.5	49.9	56.9
Nursing home and hospital	2.7	1.9	1.4	-	1.6
Others	4.1	5.2	2.3	-	2.9
Total	100	100	100	100	100
	P < 0.001 (test for heterogeneity)

¹ The sum is greater than 100 because a number of patients was in different places.
² All percentages are weighted.
³ The number of cancer deaths have been estimated, using 1998 mortality data.

ISSN: 1471-2458