Impact of mental illness on end‐of‐life emergency department use in elderly patients with gastrointestinal malignancies

Abstract Background Elderly patients with gastrointestinal cancer and mental illness have significant comorbidities that can impact the quality of their care. We investigated the relationship between mental illness and frequent emergency department (ED) use in the last month of life, an indicator for poor end‐of‐life care quality, among elderly patients with gastrointestinal cancers. Methods We used SEER‐Medicare data to identify decedents with gastrointestinal cancers who were diagnosed between 2004 and 2013 and were at least 66 years old at time of diagnosis (median age: 80 years, range: 66–117 years). We evaluated the association between having a diagnosis of depression, bipolar disorders, psychotic disorders, anxiety, dementia, and/or substance use disorders and ED use in the last 30 days of life using logistic regression models. Results Of 160,367 patients included, 54,661 (34.1%) had a mental illness diagnosis between one year prior to cancer diagnosis and death. Patients with mental illness were more likely to have > 1 ED visit in the last 30 days of life (15.6% vs. 13.3%, p