Table 1.
Individuals with or without a favourable opinion about legalising physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia
| All | Legalising physician-assisted suicide | P value | Legalising euthanasia | P value | ||||
| Favourable | Not favourable | Favourable | Not favourable | |||||
| N=331 | N=161 | N=90 | N=172 | N=86 | ||||
| M±SD | M±SD | M±SD | M±SD | M±SD | ||||
| N (%) | MD | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | |||
| Age | 65.8±12.7 | 13 | 64.7±12.4 | 67.9±12.7 | 0.054 | 65.5±13.0 | 66.3±12.5 | 0.627 |
| Sex | ||||||||
| Male | 161 (48.6) | 0 | 85 (52.8) | 44 (48.9) | 0.553 | 86 (50.0) | 45 (52.3) | 0.725 |
| Female | 170 (51.4) | 76 (47.2) | 46 (51.1) | 86 (50.0) | 41 (47.7) | |||
| Marital situation | ||||||||
| Couple | 187 (57) | 3 | 96 (60) | 44 (48.9) | 0.089 | 97 (56.7) | 46 (53.5) | 0.622 |
| Single | 141 (43) | 64 (40) | 46 (51.1) | 74 (43.3) | 40 (46.5) | |||
| Have children | ||||||||
| Yes | 272 (82.7) | 2 | 132 (82) | 73 (81.1) | 0.863 | 140 (81.4) | 71 (82.6) | 0.820 |
| No | 57 (17.3) | 29 (18) | 17 (18.9) | 32 (18.6) | 15 (17.4) | |||
| High school education | ||||||||
| No | 160 (48.9) | 4 | 73 (45.9) | 46 (51.1) | 0.430 | 83 (48.8) | 42 (48.8) | 0.998 |
| Yes | 167 (51.1) | 86 (54.1) | 44 (48.9) | 87 (51.2) | 44 (51.2) | |||
| Family support (visits) | ||||||||
| Every day | 168 (56.2) | 32 | 82 (56.6) | 54 (64.3) | 0.699 | 84 (55.3) | 55 (67.1) | 0.214 |
| Less than every day | 103 (34.5) | 46 (31.7) | 22 (26.2) | 50 (32.9) | 20 (24.3) | |||
| No visit | 28 (9.4) | 17 (11.7) | 8 (9.9) | 18 (11.8) | 7 (8.5) | |||
| Believe in God | ||||||||
| Yes | 175 (54.0) | 7 | 73 (45.6) | 65 (73.0) | <0.0001 | 77 (45.3) | 61 (70.9) | <0.0001 |
| No | 149 (46.0) | 87 (54.4) | 24 (27.0) | 93 (54.7) | 25 (29.1) | |||
| Practice religion | ||||||||
| Yes | 46 (19.8) | 99 | 16 (15.7) | 22 (29.7) | 0.025 | 14 (12.5) | 23 (32.4) | 0.001 |
| No | 186 (80.2) | 86 (84.3) | 52 (70.3) | 98 (87.5) | 48 (67.6) | |||
| Hospitalised patient | ||||||||
| Yes | 278 (84.8) | 3 | 135 (84.9) | 75 (84.3) | 0.894 | 146 (85.9) | 73 (84.9) | 0.830 |
| No | 50 (15.2) | 24 (15.1) | 14 (15.7) | 24 (14.1) | 13 (15.1) | |||
| Cancer site | ||||||||
| Digestive | 69 (20.8) | 3 | 32 (19.9) | 19 (21.1) | 0.267 | 32 (18.6) | 20 (23.3) | 0.396 |
| Gynaecologic | 57 (17.2) | 26 (16.1) | 15 (16.7) | 27 (15.7) | 14 (16.3) | |||
| Head and neck | 42 (12.7) | 28 (17.4) | 7 (7.8) | 29 (16.9) | 7 (8.1) | |||
| Lung | 64 (19.3) | 30 (18.5) | 23 (25.6) | 36 (20.9) | 18 (20.9) | |||
| Others* | 96 (30.3) | 45 (28.0) | 26 (28.9) | 47 (27.5) | 27 (31.4) | |||
| Metastatic sites | ||||||||
| Yes | 274 (86.7) | 15 | 135 (86.5) | 73 (83.0) | 0.448 | 140 (84.3) | 77 (91.7) | 0.106 |
| No | 42 (13.3) | 21 (13.5) | 15 (17.0) | 26 (15.7) | 7 (8.3) | |||
| Treatment during curable phase | ||||||||
| Adjuvant chemotherapy | 93 (28.1) | 0 | 48 (29.8) | 26 (28.9) | 0.878 | 48 (27.9) | 25 (29.1) | 0.845 |
| Neoadjuvant chemotherapy | 27 (8.2) | 0 | 14 (8.7) | 6 (6.7) | 0.569 | 15 (8.7) | 7 (8.1) | 0.875 |
| Radiotherapy | 90 (27.2) | 0 | 41 (25.5) | 28 (31.1) | 0.337 | 47 (27.3) | 24 (27.9) | 0.921 |
| Surgery | 101 (30.5) | 0 | 52 (32.3) | 29 (32.2) | 0.990 | 55 (32) | 27 (31.4) | 0.925 |
| Immunotherapy | 14 (4.2) | 0 | 8 (5.0) | 4 (4.4) | 1.000 | 9 (5.2) | 4 (4.7) | 0.841 |
| Target therapy | 12 (3.6) | 0 | 5 (3.1) | 4 (4.4) | 7 (4.1) | 4 (4.7) | 0.828 | |
| Treatments during incurable phase | ||||||||
| Chemotherapy | 235 (71.0) | 0 | 114 (70.8) | 65 (72.2) | 0.812 | 122 (70.9) | 62 (72.1) | 0.840 |
| Radiotherapy | 106 (32.0) | 0 | 51 (31.7) | 25 (27.8) | 0.519 | 52 (30.2) | 29 (33.7) | 0.569 |
| Surgery | 58 (17.5) | 0 | 24 (14.9) | 12 (13.3) | 0.733 | 23 (13.4) | 15 (17.4) | 0.385 |
| Immunotherapy | 52 (15.7) | 0 | 30 (18.6) | 12 (13.3) | 0.281 | 31 (18) | 12 (14) | 0.408 |
| Target therapy | 32 (9.7) | 0 | 17 (10.6) | 6 (6.7) | 0.305 | 15 (8.7) | 7 (8.1) | 0.875 |
| Hormonotherapy | 10 (3.0) | 0 | 6 (3.7) | 1 (1.1) | 0.427 | 4 (2.3) | 2 (2.3) | 1.000 |
*Dermatologic, haematologic, cerebral, sarcoma, urologic.
MD, missing data.