TABLE 3.
Assisted suicide cases in Switzerland (2018–2020): distribution of underlying diseases reported by EXIT and the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) Cause of Death Statistics (Zurich, Switzerland, 2023).
| EXIT | FSO | |
|---|---|---|
| All cases with AS | 2,668 | 3,623 |
| Median age of death (range) | 81 (20–103) | 80 (20–104) |
| Underlying disease reported: | ||
| 1. Cancer (%) | 979 (36.7) | 1,415 (39.1) |
| Median age at death (range) | 75 (20–99) | 75 (20–99) |
| 2. Other diseases (%) | 1,689 (63.3) | 2,040 (56.3) |
| Median age of death (range) | 84 (29–103) | 83 (27–104) |
| 2.1. Multimorbidity | 698 (26.2) | not reported |
| Median age of death (range) | 89 (60–103) | |
| 2.2. Neurodegenerative diseases | 287 (10.8) | 487 (13.4) |
| Median age at death (range) | 76 (36–98) | 76 (27–103) |
| 2.1.1 Parkinson’s disease | 89 (3.3) | 105 (2.9) |
| 2.1.2 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) | 63 (2.4) | 83 (2.3) |
| 2.1.3 Multiple Sclerosis (MS) | 49 (1.8) | 55 (1.5) |
| 2.1.4 Dementia | 58 (2.2) | 63 (1.7) |
| 2.1.5 Eye disease | 28 (1.0) | not reported |
| 2.1.5 Other neurodegenerative diseases | not reported | 181 (5.0) |
| 2.3. Chronic pain | 225 (8.4) | not reported |
| Median age of death (range) | 82 (29–100) | |
| 2.4 Cardiovascular diseases | 165 (6.2) | 434 (12.0) |
| Median age at death (range) | 84 (53–101) | 87 (47–103) |
| 2.4.1 Heart disease | 81 (3.0) | not reported |
| 2.4.2 Stroke | 84 (3.2) | not reported |
| 2.5 Musculoskeletal diseases | not reported | 376 (10.4) |
| Median age at death (5th to 95th percentile) | 86 (39–100) | |
| 2.6 Lung diseases | 134 (5.0) | 168 (4.6) |
| Median age at death (range) | 77 (54–97) | 77 (54–100) |
| 2.7 Mental disorders | 56 (2.1) | 132 (3.6) |
| Median age at death (range) | 67 (35–88) | 81 (29–99) |
| 2.8 Other disorders | 124 (4.6) a | 443 (12.2) |
| Median age at death (range) | 75 (35–89) | 86 (47–104) |
| 3. Unknown | In all cases an underlying condition had been reported | 168 (4.6) |
| Median age at death (5th to 95th percentile) | 85 (32–101) |
EXIT: In addition to the categories “multimorbidity” and “chronic pain,” there are further symptom-based categories: “eye disease” (n = 28, 1.0% of all AS cases), “peripheral neuropathy” (n = 25, 0.9% of all AS cases) and quadriplegia (n = 10, 0.4% of all AS cases) are only listed in the EXIT statistics but not in the ICD-based FSO cause of death statistics.
EXIT, “other disorders” includes: peripheral neuropathy (n = 25), renal disease (n = 16), quadriplegia (n = 10), and HIV (n = 7). These conditions are reported in the annual EXIT reports and account for 2.2% of AS cases. We omit to report these diseases/conditions separately because they are relatively rare and each account for <1% of cases.