Symptom Burden and Survival in Patients Receiving Outpatient and Home-Based Palliative Care

Background: Symptom burden assessment with the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) has been widely studied among patients in outpatient palliative care (OPC), but fewer reports in home-based palliative care (HBPC), and none has assessed the prognostic value of ESAS scores in HBPC. Methods: This retrospective cohort study compares symptom burden and its prognostic value in adult patients receiving OPC and HBPC services between January 1, 2019, and June 30, 2021. Results: Patients completed the ESAS at the first OPC consultation ( n = 4086) and at admission to HBPC ( n = 4087). OPC patients were younger, more likely to have cancer, less likely to have had a recent hospitalization, and had higher adjusted median ESAS scores (28.1 vs. 22.9) compared with HBPC patients (all p