
The median length of time between nursing home entrance and death is 5 months - croissants
http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC2945440&blobtype=pdf
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croissants
A quicker TLDR to try and summarize methodology and findings:

> We examined a consecutive sample of HRS subjects who died between 1992 and
> 2006. HRS subjects are a representative sample of Americans over the age of
> 50 who were living in the community at the time of their initial interview.
> The HRS is conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University
> of Michigan and is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. The HRS is
> designed to study transitions in health and wealth among older adults.

> Two thousand three hundred and one subjects primarily resided in a nursing
> home at the end of life. We excluded subjects with missing information
> regarding their exact year of placement in nursing home (n=68), age at time
> of placement in nursing home (n=27), not having completed a core interview
> within two years of their placement in nursing home (n=203), not having the
> exact date of death (n=71), having reported nursing home placement after the
> date of death (n=54) and having an irreconcilable nursing home admission
> date (i.e. subjects reported as being interviewed in the community after the
> nursing home admission date) (n=67). Our final sample was comprised of 1,817
> decedents.

> Over the years 1992 to 2006, 8,433 HRS participants died, and 27.3% of these
> decedents resided in a nursing home at the time of death. While subjects
> resided in a nursing home at the end of life, their physical location of
> death was distinct for many. Of the 1,817 subjects in our study sample who
> resided in a nursing home at the end of life, next-of-kin stated that the
> physical location of death was the nursing home for 70.4% of subjects, the
> hospital for 22.6%, in-inpatient hospice facilities for 3.5%, home for 0.4%,
> and 3.1% died elsewhere. The majority of decedents were Non-Hispanic White
> (81.5%), female (59.1%), and had a mean age of 83.3 (SD 9.0) years at the
> time of admission to a nursing home.

> The mean length of stay among decedents was 13.7 months; however, this was
> explained by a relatively small number of subjects with long lengths of
> stay. The median length of stay was only 5 months (IQR 1-20). The majority
> of residents had short lengths of stay, 65% percent of decedents had lengths
> of stay of less than one year, and over 53% died within 6 months of
> admission.

> We do not know the reason for admission to the nursing home, and some
> patients may have been admitted specifically for end-of-life care. We
> excluded patients admitted to residential hospice facilities, although some
> residential hospice facilities may have been located within nursing homes.

