Exploring Pediatric Code Status, Advance Care Planning, and Mode of Death Disparities at End of Life

Keisha White Makinde, Allison Silverstein, Erin Peckham-Gregory, Erin Kim, Jessica Casas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Context: Children from marginalized groups are at risk for worse medical outcomes, yet little is known about their end of life experiences. Objective: We examine the characteristics of deceased children with a focus on race, ethnicity, and preferred language. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients who died at Texas Children's Hospital from 2018 to 2019. Demographics, date of death, and final code status were extracted. Medical complexity prior to admission and mode of death were obtained from chart review. Results: We included 433 patients. Over one-third were Hispanic (39.3%) with 42.3% preferring Spanish. The majority were White (61.4%) or Black (21.0%). Most patients had significant medical complexity (52.0%) or were infants in their birth admission (29.4%). Half (52.4%) received palliative care; patients with increased medical complexity were more likely to have palliative care involved (P<0.001). There were no differences in palliative care, code status, or mode of death by race. Hispanic patients were less likely to have a full code status (OR 0.42, 95% CI: 0.25–0.73). Spanish-speaking patients were more likely to have palliative care involvement (OR 2.05, 95% CI: 1.21–3.46) and less likely full code orders (OR 0.24, 95% CI: 0.1–0.63). Conclusion: Palliative care services are engaged with most children at end of life and is accessible to marginalized patient groups. Spanish-speaking patients have different code status orders and modes of death at end of life. Further studies are needed to elucidate explanatory factors for differences revealed and multicenter studies are needed to characterize more widespread experiences.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)410-420
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Pain and Symptom Management
Volume68
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2024

Keywords

  • Advance care planning
  • End of life care
  • Ethnicity
  • Pediatric palliative medicine
  • Preferred language
  • Race

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Exploring Pediatric Code Status, Advance Care Planning, and Mode of Death Disparities at End of Life'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this