- Home
- Administrative data
- Our research
- About us
- Contact us
- News and events
- BLOG - Access to secure data during the COVID-19 pandemic - a model for the future?
- COVID-19 and Care Homes: Advances in Administrative Data Research during the pandemic
- DATA INSIGHTS: Deprivation and informal care at the end of life
- NEWS - Innovative new residential linkage tool launched
- BLOG - Spotlight on Dr Elizabeth Lemmon
- BLOG - Spotlight on Jan Savinc
- DATA INSIGHTS - Youth Movements, Social Mobility and Health Inequalities
- NEWS - New report warns of deepening poverty crisis for Scottish families
- New report on Infants Born into Care in Scotland
- BLOG - The value of social science and administrative data research in Scotland: how we are helping respond to COVID-19
- DATA INSIGHTS - Exploring illegal drug consignments in Scotland
- DATA INSIGHTS: Linking two administrative data sets about looked after children
- Virtual Conference - Data Linkage: Information to Impact
- BLOG SERIES - Dramatic increase in deaths at home
- BLOG SERIES - Dramatic increase in deaths at home- No.3
- DATA INSIGHTS - Selective schools: do they improve health?
- NEWS - Understanding the dynamics of the nursing workforce: the potential of routinely collected data
- BLOG - Spotlight on Fernando Pantoja
- BLOG: Developing a cross-national research agenda on crime and convictions
- DATA INSIGHTS - The health and economic benefits of active commuting in Scotland
- BLOG - AGEING AND HOMELESSNESS IN SCOTLAND
- BLOG: Can we use linked administrative data to identify social disadvantage?
- EVENT - ADR UK Virtual Half Day event
- Event - Public data for public good: towards better understanding children's lives
- NEWS: Our role supporting the new COVID-19 research data service in Scotland
- BLOG - An Inside Job: Using Criminology, Police Data and a Lot of Nouse
- BLOG - Location of death in 2020: a changing trend from hospitals to homes
- BLOG - Seeking feedback on Research Data Scotland’s core principles via our public panel
- BLOG - Spotlight on Dr Patricio Troncoso
- BLOG - What skills, training and support are required by those wishing a career as an administrative data researcher?
- BLOG: 5 things I've learnt about working with policymakers...
- BLOG: Automating Coding for Large Historical Datasets
- BLOG: COVID-19- How increased deaths at home impact the carer community
- EVENT - Linking public sector data for research: an ADR UK showcase event
- EVENT Seminar - Administrative data for social policy research: potential and pitfalls
- NEWS - Additional funding for Understanding Children’s Lives and Outcomes
- NEWS: Police use of Fixed Penalty Notices under the Covid-19 regulations in Scotland: A new data report highlights links with deprivation and inequality
- NEWS: Police use of the new Covid-19 powers: Using administrative data to analyse and evaluate practice
- Directorship of the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) for 2021-22.
- BLOG: In the light of experience: InterRAI and the final thousand days of life
- DATA INSIGHTS: multiple health conditions and social care
- NEWS - Susan McVie elected as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
- SCADR relocates to the Bayes Centre
- EVENT: Four day introduction to using administrative data for social and health research
- BLOG: The value of administrative data: DALYs and the Scottish Burden of Disease study
- BLOG: Where to start with parliamentary and policy engagement
- EVENT - International Conference on Administrative Data Research, Cardiff
- EVENT - Using data to realise the potential of the 'Last 1000 days'
- EVENT: TalkingData: ADR Scotland mini-summit
- EVENT: “Let’s use data to save time, money and lives”: ADR Scotland partners gather for mini-summit
- EVENTS: ADR Scotland researchers present at international conference in Cardiff
BLOG SERIES - Dramatic increase in deaths at home during the pandemic
This month, Jan Savinc, focuses on the increase of 'deaths at home' since the beginning of the pandemic, using data for the entirety of 2020 as well as 2021 as new data are released.
Introduction
The data used in this analysis are the weekly updated Deaths involving coronavirus (Covid-19) in Scotland by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) as well as historic weekly deaths for the 2015-2019 period.
The pandemic has placed unprecedented demand on health services, with the increase of home deaths having implications on formal and informal care. This blog series follows on from research carried out by Iain Atherton in June 2020 on increasing deaths at home and their implications for carers and David Henderson's analysis in April 2020 on changing patterns in location of death during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We will post a regular blog at the start of each month, which will demonstrate what changes (if any) there are for Deaths at Home in 2020/21, as opposed to the historical data (collated from 2015-2019).
What the data analysis shows
The number of deaths recorded at home (or other non-institutions) over time is illustrated in the above figure, with 2021 figures near the end of the graph at the far right. The red line shows deaths from any cause, with the blue line showing non Covid-19 related deaths: the gap between the two lines represents deaths related to Covid-19 with the overall picture showing few such deaths at home.
Home deaths increased rapidly from week 12 (end of March) and have remained high relative to the historic maximum for the rest of 2020 with even the lowest number in week 39 (mid-September) comparable to the maximum of the 2015-2019 period (shown by the greyish blue).
Death total for period up to 15 Feb 2021
The total number of all deaths at home is 24,183 which have occurred since the start of 2020 to week 7 (w/c 15th February) in 2021, which is 36% more than the average number of people who died at home in the equivalent period in 2015-2019.
What next?
Future blogs in coming weeks will continue to report on this trend and look at how it varies across Scotland.
Questions on the quality of end-of-life care available, as well as what the causes of death may need to be investigated using linked administrative data in the coming months and years. We have drafted a policy briefing to help focus discussions.
Further Information
Please contact our Health & Social Care research group if you wish to discuss any of the content of this blog.
A draft of our policy briefing is here.
Further coverage by Evening Standard - March 2021 and BBC News - April 2021.
We were extremely grateful to David and Colin for their earlier work, which were of massive help when analysing these data! They can be contacted:
- David Henderson: Github and Twitter and Colin Angus: Github and Twitter
This article was published on 01 Mar 2021