Table 1.

Background characteristics of respondents

	General practitioners	Elderly care physicians	Clinical specialists	p-value*	Total
	n = 182	n = 110	n = 112		n = 406†
	%	%	%		%
Gender				<0.05
• Men	63	36	70		58
• Women	36	65	30		42
Age (years)				≥0.05
• <40	20	31	13		21
• 41-50	32	33	40		35
• 51-60	41	35	41		39
• >60	7	1	6		5
Employment				<0.05
• full-time	54	27	80		55
• part-time	43	71	20		45
Grade given for own knowledge before completing the questionnaire (1-10)				<0.05
• <5.5	3	2	9		4
• 5.5-6.5	13	6	15		11
• 6.6-7.5	56	52	39		50
• 7.6-8.5	27	38	29		30
• 8.6-10	2	3	8		4
Grade given for own knowledge after completing the questionnaire (1-10)				<0.05
• <5.5	2	1	13		5
• 5.5-6.5	10	9	17		12
• 6.6-7.5	53	53	39		49
• 7.6-8.5	33	34	28		32
• 8.6-10	2	3	5		3
Received specific education in palliative care apart from regular medical education	77	90	43	<0.05	71
Number of patients to whom the respondent had prescribed opioids in 2008				≥0.05
• None	0	2	3		1
• 1-5	5	2	13		6
• 6-20	43	28	24		33
• 21-50	35	46	20		34
• >50	16	21	42		25
Number of deaths after a sickbed (non-sudden) in 2008 while being treating physician				<0.05
• None	0	0	11		3
• 1-5	35	5	15		21
• 6-20	59	39	49		50
• 21-50	6	47	17		21
• >50	1	9	9		5
Percentage of these patients that were using opioids at the moment of death‡				<0.05
• None	1	1	8		2
• 1-40%	17	16	36		22
• 41-80%	46	66	42		51
• 81-100%	37	17	14		25

* chi-square test testing differences between the three groups of physicians

† including 2 physicians who did not specify their specialty

‡ percentage of patients per physician, (e.g. 37% of the general practitioners indicated that 81-100% of their patients were using opioids at the moment of death), percentages of physicians who had at least one death after a sickbed (non-sudden) in 2008