Table 4

Number of healthcare team–family communication encounters in the last 5 days of life in mixed effects negative binomial models (A: in-person and B: telephone)*

ModelsAnd variables examinedCount†Incidence rate ratio (95% CI)P value
A. In-person encounter2 (1–4)
 Age of decedent‡0.997 (0.99–1.004)0.396
 Sex of decedent (female)2 (1–5)1
 Sex of decedent (male)2 (1–4)0.85 (0.72–0.99)0.041
 Study group: exposure status
  Pre-COVID3 (2–5)1
  COVID-ve2 (1–4)0.76 (0.64–0.90)0.001
  COVID+ve0 (0–2)0.61 (0.47–0.79)<0.001
 Care service at death
  Medicine service2 (0–5)1
  Intensive care unit2 (1–3)0.68 (0.55–0.84)<0.001
 Days in hospital‡1.003 (0.999–1.006)0.411
B. Telephone communications1 (0–3)
 Age of decedent‡1.005 (0.996–1.01)0.283
 Sex of decedent (female)1 (0–3)1
 Sex of decedent (male)1 (0–3)1.002 (0.84–1.19)0.984
 Study group: exposure status
  Pre-COVID1 (0–1)1
  COVID-ve2 (1–3)2.60 (2.09–3.25)<0.001
  COVID+ve4 (2–5)4.77 (3.72–6.12)<0.001
 Care service at death
  Medicine1 (0–3)1
  Intensive care unit1 (0–3)1.16 (0.93–1.43)0.189
 Days in hospital‡0.998 (0.99–1.001)0.203

  • Bold values were statistically significant

  • *Hospital site and family’s physical presence in the last 48 hours of life were both included as random effects in both models.

  • †Counts for categorical variables, median (Q1–Q3).

  • ‡Treated as a continuous covariate in models.