Table 1.

Characteristics of patients (N = 280)

Characteristic
	N	%
Age category
≤75 years	128	46
>75 years	149	54
Gender
Male	131	47
Female	149	53
Diagnosis
Cancer	189	71
Non-cancer	78	29
Place of dying
At home	82	29
Nursing home	67	24
Hospital	117	42
Elsewhere	14	5
Awareness of dying
According to the medical record patient was aware	145	52
According to nurse patient was aware	163	58
According to family caregiver patient was aware	173	62
Relationship with family caregiver/proxy
Partner	106	38
Parent/child	122	44
Sibling	12	4
Other family	28	10
Other non-family	11	4
Use of LCP
No	179	64
Yes	101	36
Symptom prevalence during the last 3 days of life	N1/N2	%
In need of rest	224/265	85
Fatigue	215/264	81
Weakness	195/263	74
Lack of appetite	191/263	73
Difficulty concentrating	118/251	47
Shortness of breath	116/266	44
Incontinence	110/266	41
Pain	106/271	39
Mouth problems/dysphagia	77/207	37
Restlessness	100/269	37
Worrying	86/250	34
Difficulty remembering	83/253	33
Tenseness	68/252	27
Troublesome mucus	73/271	27
Confusion	68/263	26
Anxiety	67/260	26
Trouble sleeping	64/266	24
Depressed mood	58/247	23
Poor vision	45/252	18
Coughing	37/214	17
Involuntary movements	43/268	16
Nausea	41/266	15
Constipation	38/261	15
Pressure ulcers	36/270	13
Vomiting	29/267	11
Agitation	25/256	10
Diarrhoea	23/261	9
Itching	12/265	5

N ¹ number of patients in whom the symptom was present, N ² number of patients for whom the nurse answered the item