A New England Journal of Medicine report has indicated that more people in the US are dying at home than at the hospital for the first time since the early 20th century.
Using data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the researchers examined the number of natural deaths in the US and found that while the number of hospital deaths is declining, the number of deaths at home is rising.
Analyzing data from 2003 to 2017, the researchers discovered that while hospital deaths are still common, it has fallen from 905,874 hospital deaths or 39.7% of deaths in 2003 to 764,424 hospital deaths or 29.8% of deaths in 2017.
On the other hand, the number of deaths at home went up from 543,874 or 23.8% of deaths in 2003 to 88,757 or 30.7% in 2017. They also noted an increase in the number of people dying in hospice facilities from 5,395 or 0.2% in 2003 to 212,652 or 8.3% in 2017.
The report also showed that people with cancer had the biggest possibility of dying at home or in hospice while people with dementia died more often at a nursing home, and stroke patients had the lowest odds of dying at home.
Previous research have demonstrated that most people would prefer dying at home and feeling more at peace with the experience.
Deborah Waldrop, a professor of social work at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, said: "I cannot emphasize enough the point of having these conversations, not just what kind of care you want in later stages of an illness, but also what the person's thoughts are about where they want to be."
"Honestly, some of my worst moments in practice is when someone tells me 'I don't know what she wants, we never talked about it,'" Waldrop added. She argued that if someone wants to die at home, it's important that a caregiver feels the same way.
