Table 2 Incidence of end‐of‐life decisions by place of death in non‐sudden deaths in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland*.

	Hospital	Home	Care home		p Value†	Total‡
Belgium, no. of non‐sudden deaths§ (% of all deaths)	1054 (71.5%)	417 (53.3%)	457 (73.8%)	<0.001		1938 (65.7%)
Physician‐assisted death	2.6	4.3**	2.0	0.101		2.8
Euthanasia or physician‐assisted suicide	0.3	1.4**	0.0	0.005		0.5
Life‐ending without explicit patient request	2.3	2.6	2.0	0.804		2.3
Alleviation of pain/symptoms	34.4	38.3	26.0	<0.001		33.3
Taking into account life‐shortening	30.0	32.5	23.2	0.005		28.9
Partly intending life‐shortening	4.5	5.8	2.8	0.099		4.3
Non‐treatment decision	22.4	17.7**	26.0	0.012		22.2
Taking into account life‐shortening	9.9	6.5**	10.7	0.060		9.3
Explicitly intending life‐shortening	12.5	11.3	15.3	0.179		12.9
Denmark, no. of non‐sudden deaths§ (% of all deaths)	736 (63.9%)	413 (56.2%)	762 (86.0%)	<0.001		1954 (66.5%)
Physician‐assisted death	0.7	2.7**	0.9	0.015		1.2
Euthanasia or physician‐assisted suicide	0.0	0.7	0.1	0.034		0.2
Life‐ending without explicit patient request	0.7	1.9	0.9	0.131		1.0
Alleviation of pain/symptoms	37.1	46.2	37.5	0.005		39.0
Taking into account life‐shortening	33.3	42.1**	35.3**	0.011		35.7
Partly intending life‐shortening	3.8	4.1	2.2	0.110		3.3
Non‐treatment decision	27.0	14.5**	18.9**	<0.001		20.9
Taking into account life‐shortening	11.7	6.1**	9.4**	0.007		9.5
Explicitly intending life‐shortening	15.4	8.5**	9.4**	<0.001		11.4
Sweden, no. of non‐sudden deaths§ (% of all deaths)	948 (67.9%)	315 (46.7%)	842 (78.8%)	<0.001		2145 (66.0%)
Physician‐assisted death	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.999		0.4
Euthanasia or physician‐assisted suicide	0.0	0.0	0.0	–		0.0
Life‐ending without explicit patient request	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.999		0.4
Alleviation of pain/symptoms	29.2	29.8	33.3	0.168		30.8
Taking into account life‐shortening	28.6	29.8	32.5	0.189		30.2
Partly intending life‐shortening	0.6	0.0	0.7	0.387		0.6
Non‐treatment decision	27.2	17.5**	16.0**	<0.001		21.4
Taking into account life‐shortening	8.6	5.4	6.3**	0.069		7.3
Explicitly intending life‐shortening	18.5	12.1**	9.7**	<0.001		14.1
Switzerland, no. of non‐sudden deaths§ (% of all deaths)	1044 (83.7%)	354 (46.6%)	867 (77.0%)	<0.001		2283 (68.0%)
Physician‐assisted death	0.4	5.1**	1.2**	<0.001		1.5
Euthanasia or physician‐assisted suicide	0.1	3.4**	0.6**	<0.001		0.9
Life‐ending without explicit patient request	0.3	1.7**	0.6	0.018		0.6
Alleviation of pain/symptoms	34.3	33.3	30.3	0.158		32.4
Taking into account life‐shortening	31.1	28.0	26.6	0.081		28.7
Partly intending life‐shortening	3.2	5.4	3.7	0.170		3.7
Non‐treatment decision	41.3	32.8**	43.1	0.003		40.8
Taking into account life‐shortening	8.8	7.3	13.2	0.001		10.3
Explicitly intending life‐shortening	32.6	25.4**	29.9	0.038		30.5

*All data are weighted (i.e. adjusted for stratification and sociodemographic characteristics).

†Fisher's exact test for differences between home, hospital and care home.

‡This includes a small number of deaths in other places. Totals might not add up.

§Number of deaths (and percentage within total number of deaths in hospital, at home, etc.) in which an end‐of‐life decision was possible (i.e. not sudden or unexpected, and when the physician first saw the patient before the the patient's death).

**The probability remained statistically higher or lower than for hospitals (reference category) in a logistic regression controlling for age, sex and cause of death.