We describe frequency distributions for each outcome over time and report tests for trend. For each outcome, patients contributed information to all windows for which they had data collected. To describe progression to death, we constructed four observational windows backward in time, beginning with patients' dates of death and ending with their date of entry into the SUPPORT project or 6 months before death, whichever came first.
To characterize the experiences of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) during their last 6 months of life.Ī retrospective analysis of data from a prospective cohort study.įive geographically diverse tertiary care academic medical centers.Ī total of 1404 patients enrolled in the Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatments (SUPPORT) with a diagnosis of an acute exacerbation of CHF, of whom 539 patients died within 1 year of their index hospitalization.ĭata from interviews with patients or their surrogates were collected and chart abstractions performed at several time points in SUPPORT.
