The epidemic increased the rate of deaths at home in 23 countries

During the pandemic, health systems have had to respond to the needs of patients with COVID-19 while caring for patients with other life-threatening illnesses. The study, developed as part of the EOLinPLACE research project, revealed that the proportion of people who died at home rose in 23 out of 32 countries: Choose where we die: reforming taxonomy to recognize diversity in individual end-of-life trajectories.

The study was conducted by four research teams in Portugal, the Netherlands, the United States and Uganda and consisted of: “In analyzing death certificate data with information about where people die,” Describes the researcher from the University of Coimbra School of Medicine, Barbara Gomes, who led the Portuguese team that is part of the EOLinPLace project.

“We collected information in 32 countries, with funding from the European Research Council, which allowed us to obtain this data and work on it for a decade – from 2012 to 2021 – including two years of the pandemic.” The researcher adds.

“This is the largest study of international trends in place of death and is the first to show the impact of the pandemic. An increase in deaths at home has been recorded in most countries. This is important because it represents an unprecedented number.” We have seen a change in end-of-life care, meaning returning to die at home. Before the pandemic, we already knew that there was an increasing trend in some of these countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States. Now we know that there are more countries where this trend had already occurred before the pandemic, and during the pandemic years, this percentage has risen. Of the people who died in the house,” Researcher highlights from the University of Coimbra School of Medicine.

“Uganda was the only African country [a participar no projecto] It is one of the countries targeted by the project in which this study is being conducted, which is the OLiPLACE project. In this project we have four countries that are part of the 32 countries we analyzed – Portugal, the Netherlands, the United States and Uganda. We chose these countries because we know that they are complete opposites. In Uganda, we are seeing the highest indoor mortality rate of all countries, between 76 and 82%, before the pandemic. We found that it is one of the countries where this percentage has decreased the most, in contrast to the prevailing trend in other countries.” Researcher Barbara Gomez concluded.

Scientific material The increase in household deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based study of adult death certificate data from 32 countries, 2012-2021 It was published in eClinicalMedicine published by The Lancet.