End-of-life hospital referrals by out-of-hours general practitioners: a retrospective chart study

BMC Primary Care

Table 2 Symptoms as noted by an out-of-hours GP (N = 529) (the S and O in the SOEP registration)

Main ICPC category		Totaln = 529 %	Referral n = 68 %	No Referraln = 461 %	P-value
	Symptom
General		48	52	48	0.564
	Pain	42	46	41	0.495
	Fever ≥38	5	6	5	0.762*
	Other	3	4	3	0.446*
Digestive		30	53	26	<0.001
	Vomiting/ nausea	16	41	12	<0.001
	Swallowing problems	8	6	8	0.575
	Diarrhoea	3	6	3	0.137*
	Ileus	3	7	2	0.017*
	Ascites	2	6	2	0.056*
	Other	6	4	6	0.785*
Respiratory		26	31	25	0.335
	Dyspnoea	26	31	25	0.296
	Other	1	2	1	0.564*
Endocrine, metabolic or nutritional		25	46	22	<0.001
	Loss of appetite	19	35	17	<0.001
	Cachexia	6	12	5	0.042*
	Dehydration	4	16	3	<0.001*
	Other	2	3	2	0.625*
Psychological		24	19	24	0.444
	Agitation and confusion	19	15	19	0.385
	Other	8	4	9	0.249
Neurological		16	9	17	0.088
	Drowsiness	15	7	16	0.055
	Other	1	3	1	0.174*
Urological		8	9	8	0.812
Cardiovascular		5	13	4	0.001
	Pulmonary or deep venous embolism	2	7	1	0.005*
	Other	2	6	2	0.056*
Skin problems		5	7	5	0.387
Number of Symptoms (mean, SD)		2.1 (SD 1.4)	3,0 (SD 1.6)	2,0 (SD 1.3)	0.038**
	Patients with >2 symptoms	32	56	28	<0.001

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