Cohen Lilian Liou
Department of Pediatrics, New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Campus, New York, New York 10021, USA.
J Palliat Med. 2008 Jun;11(5):763-8. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2007.0216.
Access to hospice is a growing public health matter given that quality care at the end of life should be provided to all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Health care disparities, particularly among racial and ethnic groups, have been well documented in the scientific literature. However, little is known about the demographics of hospice users or the use of hospice services by specific racial and ethnic groups.
This paper is a systematic literature review of studies that examine rates of hospice use among minority patients versus white patients.
Comprehensive literature searches were conducted using the standard scientific search engines MEDLINE, PubMed, Psych Info, and the Cochrane Library for articles published from 1980 through January 2006.
Twelve of 13 relevant studies found differences in hospice use between minorities and whites. The majority of studies were retrospective cohort studies using administrative data. No randomized controlled studies, meta-analyses, or any formal literature review were found.
Racial variations in hospice use indicate minorities use services disproportionately less than white patients, even after researchers control for specific sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.
鉴于应向所有个体提供优质的临终关怀，无论其种族、民族或社会经济地位如何，临终关怀的可及性已成为一个日益重要的公共卫生问题。医疗保健方面的差异，尤其是不同种族和民族群体之间的差异，在科学文献中已有充分记载。然而，对于临终关怀使用者的人口统计学特征或特定种族和民族群体对临终关怀服务的使用情况，我们知之甚少。
本文是一项系统的文献综述，旨在研究少数族裔患者与白人患者使用临终关怀的比率。
使用标准科学搜索引擎MEDLINE、PubMed、Psych Info和Cochrane图书馆，对1980年至2006年1月发表的文章进行全面文献检索。
13项相关研究中的12项发现少数族裔和白人在临终关怀使用方面存在差异。大多数研究是使用行政数据的回顾性队列研究。未发现随机对照研究、荟萃分析或任何正式的文献综述。
临终关怀使用方面的种族差异表明，即使在研究人员控制了特定的社会人口学和临床特征之后，少数族裔使用服务的比例仍远低于白人患者。
