Demography and the Context of Health in Paliative Care

Abstract

The aim of our work was to analyse the tendencies of hospitalization in the palliative care wards and trends in the consumption of analgesics prescribed by geriatrics. Analysed was the consumption of 21,302 most common diagnoses in the hospitalized patients at palliative care wards in the period from 1/2016 to 12/2017. The data were based on the request provided by Všeobecnázdravotnápoisťovňa, a.s. (health insurance company). In the trend analysis was used APC (annual percentage change indicator), and for statistic analysis was used IBM SPSS Statistics. Further was analysed the consumption of 12,888 of the most commonly prescribed analgesics by geriatrics in the period from 1/2016 to 12/2017. In 2017 was found the significant decrease in hospitalized patients in palliative care wards with the diagnoses as follows: tumours (APC -22.9 %), mental and behavioural disorders (APC -4.6 %), disorders of nervous system (APC -26.3 %), skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases (APC -35.1 %), respiratory disorders (APC -35.4 %), shoulder and arm fractures (APC -25.6 %), multiple area injuries (APC -54, 5 %) and later consequences of lower limb injuries (APC -58.3 %). The aging of the population brings a great challenge to ensure the adequate financial, human and other material resources to ensure the sufficient economic productivity and promote the status of active aging in the context of human dignity and fundamental principles of humanism that should not disappear from our society. Key words: demography; noncommunicable diseases; palliative care; population ageing; public health.