Blacks, Asians use less hospice care

BOSTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Black and Asian-American families use U.S. hospice care less than whites or Hispanics, researchers said.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found black patients 9 percent less likely than others to enroll in a hospice program, while Asian-Americans were 24 percent less likely to do so. Blacks were 26 percent and Asian Americans were 17 percent more likely to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit at least twice during their last month of life.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston researchers studied 41,000 terminal cancer patients over age 65 with Medicare health insurance coverage. They considered a number of factors -- including income and physical health -- and found race and ethnicity affecting use of hospice services among patients with advanced cancer.

"Minority patients may be bearing the burdens of high-intensity care at the end of life, without realizing the benefits of hospice and palliative care," lead author Dr. Alexander Smith said in a statement.

"In order to develop effective strategies to promote hospice and palliative care services for these under-served populations, further research is needed to clarify the extent to which racial and ethnic differences in end-of-life care are due to cultural factors versus inequities in care."