Prevalence and Factors Associated With Palliative Care Utilization Among Hospitalized Patients With Gallbladder Cancer- A National Inpatient Sample Analysis.

Objectives: Various factors have been associated with palliative utilization in different cancers. However, literature is still lacking on the prevalence and factors associated with palliative care use in gallbladder cancer (GBC). This study aims to determine the prevalence of palliative care utilization and examine the factors associated with palliative care utilization among patients with GBC.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis using the National Inpatient Sample between 2016 and 2018. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the study population. We explored factors associated with palliative care utilization among hospitalized GBC patients using logistic regression.

Results: Of the 20280 GBC hospitalizations, 18.0 % utilized palliative care. Multivariable analysis revealed that treatment at urban teaching hospitals, or treatment at urban nonteaching hospitals, Medicare insurance, other insurance coverage, transfer to a facility/discharge with home health, and death during hospital stay were associated with higher utilization of palliative care. In contrast, non-elective admissions were associated with decreased odds of palliative care utilization.

Conclusion: Palliative care use among GBC patients is still low at 18.0%. Palliative care use was associated with insurance disparities, discharge disposition, hospital location, and type of admission. Therefore, concerted efforts to address these disparities in palliative care utilization are needed to improve the quality of care for this population.