[Prevalence and typology of patients susceptible of palliative care deceased at home]. / Prevalencia y tipología de pacientes susceptibles de cuidados paliativos fallecidos en el domicilio.

BACKGROUND: Identification of patients susceptible to palliative care (SPC) in the community is essential for improving their clinical management. The objective is to explore the SPC population and their typology of illness, according to sex. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, performed on the population of Malaga who died at home during 2015. Association between type of patient (SCP or identified as palliative by inclusion in the integrated care process (ICP)). Age, sex and type of disease were analyzed with Chi square and t-Student's test. RESULTS: Of 950 patients attended to after dying at home, 417 (43.9%) were SCP and, of them, 277 (66,4%) were included in the ICP. Males were more frequent in both populations (55.6 and 59.9%, respectively, p=0,26), with mean ages 78.6 and 76.2, respectively (p=0.01). The most frequent diseases in SCP patients were: cancer (61.9%), dementia and Alzheimer (19.9%), chronic ob-structive pulmonary disease (COPD) (6.2%) and heart failure (4.1%). People with cancer were more frequently included in the ICP (86.8%), while those with dementia and Alzheimer, COPD and Parkinson were less frequently included (20.5, 38.4 and 0.4% respectively). By sex, men suffered more from cancer and women from dementia. Percentage of inclusion in ICP was similar for men and women, stratified by disease. CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of the people who died at home are SCP although only two out of three are identified as such. Cancer is the most frequent SCP disease and the easiest one to identify, largely affecting men. Three out of four people with dementia died without being identified as PC, and they are mainly women.

[Calls due to suicidal behaviour made to the prehospital, emergency department in Málaga: characteristics and associated factors]. / Las demandas por conducta suicida a los servicios de urgencias prehospitalarios de Málaga: características y factores asociados.

BACKGROUND: Suicidal behaviour (fatal and non-fatal) has become a serious public health problem in many countries. The aim of the study was to describe the differential characteristics of emergency calls due to suicidal behaviour made to the Emergency Coordinating Centre (CCUE) in the province of Málaga, in comparison with calls due to physical or psychiatric problems. METHODS: Retrospective observational study of the calls recorded in the database of the Public Company for Emergency Health during one year. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out including age, gender and the following variables related with the demand: hours of the day, type of day (working days or bank holidays), months of the year and trimesters, number of resources mobilized and types of resolution. RESULTS: The analyses were carried out on 163,331 calls, of which 1,380 calls were due to suicidal behaviour (0.8%), 9,951 for psychiatric reasons (6.1%) and 152,000 for physical reasons (93%). The emergency calls for suicidal behaviour were mainly made by females, between 31-60 years, in the evening and at night, and required transfer to hospital and more than one mobilized resource. Calls due to completed suicide were more frequently made by older men. Calls due to suicidal tendencies predominated over those due to attempted or threatened suicide during the first trimester of the year, while the opposite was the case during the third trimester. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated differential characteristics of suicide calls that are potentially relevant for prevention in spite of the limitations of the present study.