Minority elderly and timely hospice care: caregiver status

This study examines how the availability and type of caregivers affect whether or not whites and minority elderly patients receive timely hospice care. Data for this study were derived from the National Center for Health Statistics' National Home and Hospice Care Surveys of 1998 and 2000. A Poisson regression with a robust error variance was used to compare the proportion of whites and minority elderly patients who died within the first month of care by their types of caregivers. Types of caregivers were formal caregivers (paid help/staff), informal caregivers (family/friends) and no caregivers. Statistically significant differences were found in the proportion of deaths for minority patients receiving care from formal and informal caregivers (Adjusted RR: 1.35, CI: 1.13–1.60, p < 0.001). No statistically significant differences were found between these two groups for whites.