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Sedation at the end of life - a nation-wide study in palliative care units in Austria

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Palliative Care, May 2016
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (78th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (62nd percentile)

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Title
Sedation at the end of life - a nation-wide study in palliative care units in Austria
Published in
BMC Palliative Care, May 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12904-016-0121-8
Pubmed ID
Authors

Sophie Schur, Dietmar Weixler, Christoph Gabl, Gudrun Kreye, Rudolf Likar, Eva Katharina Masel, Michael Mayrhofer, Franz Reiner, Barbara Schmidmayr, Kathrin Kirchheiner, Herbert Hans Watzke, on behalf of the AUPACS (Austrian Palliative Care Study) Group

Abstract

Sedation is used to an increasing extent in end-of-life care. Definitions and indications in this field are based on expert opinions and case series. Little is known about this practice at palliative care units in Austria. Patients who died in Austrian palliative care units between June 2012 and June 2013 were identified. A predefined set of baseline characteristics and information on sedation during the last two weeks before death were obtained by reviewing the patients' charts. The data of 2414 patients from 23 palliative care units were available for analysis. Five hundred two (21 %) patients received sedation in the last two weeks preceding their death, 356 (71 %) received continuous sedation until death, and 119 (24 %) received intermittent sedation. The median duration of sedation was 48 h (IQR 10-72 h); 168 patients (34 %) were sedated for less than 24 h. Indications for sedation were delirium (51 %), existential distress (32 %), dyspnea (30 %), and pain (20 %). Midazolam was the most frequently used drug (79 %), followed by lorazepam (13 %), and haloperidol (10 %). Sedated patients were significantly younger (median age 67 years vs. 74 years, p ≤ 0.001, r = 0.22), suffered more often from an oncological disease (92 % vs. 82 %, p ≤ 0.001, φ = 0.107), and were hospitalized more frequently (94 % vs. 76 %, p ≤ 0.001, φ = 0.175). The median number of days between admission to a palliative care ward/mobile palliative care team and death did not differ significantly in sedated versus non-sedated patients (10 vs. 9 days; p = 0.491). This study provides insights into the practice of end-of-life sedation in Austria. Critical appraisal of these data will serve as a starting point for the development of nation-wide guidelines for palliative sedation in Austria.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 149 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Unknown 147 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 21 14%
Student > Bachelor 20 13%
Researcher 17 11%
Student > Postgraduate 15 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 10 7%
Other 30 20%
Unknown 36 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 62 42%
Nursing and Health Professions 26 17%
Psychology 5 3%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 2%
Neuroscience 2 1%
Other 12 8%
Unknown 39 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 8. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 August 2023.
All research outputs
#4,657,429
of 25,396,120 outputs
Outputs from BMC Palliative Care
#644
of 1,512 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#70,116
of 328,718 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Palliative Care
#7
of 16 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,396,120 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 81st percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,512 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 57% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 328,718 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 16 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.