Changes in Site of Death Among Older Adults Without a COVID-19 Diagnosis During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Understanding how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected site of death—an important patient-centered outcome related to end-of-life care—would inform healthcare system resiliency in future public health emergencies. Objective: To evaluate the changes in site of death during the COVID-19 pandemic among older adults without a COVID-19 diagnosis. Design: Using a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences method, we estimated net changes in site of death during the pandemic period (March–December 2020) from the pre-pandemic period (January–February 2020), using data on the same months in prior years (2016–2019) as the control. Participants: A 20% sample of Medicare Fee-for-Service beneficiaries aged 66 years and older who died in 2016–2020. We excluded beneficiaries with a hospital diagnosis of COVID-19. Main Measures: We assessed each of the following sites of death separately: (1) home or community; (2) acute care hospital; and (3) nursing home. Key Results: We included 1,133,273 beneficiaries without a hospital diagnosis of COVID-19. We found that the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries who died at home or in the community setting increased (difference-in-differences [DID] estimate, + 3.1 percentage points [pp]; 95% CI, + 2.6 to + 3.6 pp; P < 0.001) and the proportion of beneficiaries who died (without COVID-19 diagnosis) in an acute care hospital decreased (− 0.8 pp; 95% CI, − 1.2 to − 0.4 pp; P < 0.001) during the pandemic. We found no evidence that the proportion of deaths in nursing homes changed during the pandemic. Conclusions: Using national data on older adults without a COVID-19 diagnosis, we found that site of death shifted toward home or community settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings may inform clinicians and policymakers in supporting end-of-life care during future public health emergencies.