Table 2.
Frequency of all the different medical end-of-life decisions in France by patients’ characteristics (non-sudden deaths)
| |
Life prolonging treatment |
Withholding treatment |
Withdrawing treatment |
Intensification of alleviation of symptoms |
Administration of a medication to deliberately hasten death |
No decision |
Total deaths |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | |
|
Gender | |||||||||||||
| Man |
302 |
15.62 |
335 |
17.32 |
105 |
5.43 |
641 |
33.15 |
20 |
1.02 |
531 |
27.46 |
1934 |
| Woman |
274 |
13.74 |
354 |
17.78 |
94 |
4.72 |
686 |
34.45 |
18 |
0.89 |
566 |
28.42 |
1991 |
| p value |
|
0.0865 |
|
0.7323 |
|
0.3214 |
|
0.4289 |
|
0.6790 |
|
0.5478 |
|
|
Age |
|||||||||||||
| 18-49 |
37 |
24.82 |
14 |
9.41 |
7 |
4.71 |
50 |
33.62 |
1 |
0.56 |
40 |
26.89 |
149 |
| 50-69 |
139 |
19.79 |
74 |
10.52 |
43 |
6.11 |
268 |
38.08 |
11 |
1.63 |
168 |
23.87 |
704 |
| 70-79 |
113 |
14.63 |
128 |
16.63 |
42 |
5.46 |
294 |
38.20 |
7 |
0.90 |
186 |
24.17 |
770 |
| 80-89 |
204 |
13.05 |
309 |
19.79 |
79 |
5.06 |
486 |
31.13 |
16 |
1.04 |
467 |
29.92 |
1561 |
| 90+ |
83 |
11.30 |
163 |
22.07 |
29 |
3.93 |
227 |
30.74 |
2 |
0.27 |
234 |
31.69 |
738 |
| p value |
|
<0.0001 |
|
<0.0001 |
|
0.4066 |
|
0.0003 |
|
0.1118 |
|
0.0008 |
|
|
Place of death | |||||||||||||
| At home |
104 |
15.60 |
100 |
14.96 |
22 |
3.29 |
150 |
22.44 |
9 |
1.37 |
283 |
42.34 |
668 |
| Public hospital |
334 |
15.67 |
393 |
18.44 |
121 |
5.68 |
793 |
37.21 |
16 |
0.76 |
474 |
22.24 |
2131 |
| Private hospital |
59 |
14.97 |
56 |
14.15 |
23 |
5.81 |
156 |
39.41 |
8 |
1.92 |
94 |
23.75 |
396 |
| Hospice, retirement home |
66 |
9.95 |
132 |
19.83 |
33 |
4.96 |
207 |
31.10 |
3 |
0.51 |
224 |
33.65 |
666 |
| Public place, street or other |
12 |
18.90 |
8 |
12.43 |
0 |
0.00 |
20 |
31.08 |
1 |
1.85 |
23 |
35.74 |
64 |
| p value |
|
0.0037 |
|
0.0124 |
|
0.0181 |
|
<0.0001 |
|
0.1017 |
|
<0.0001 |
|
|
Cause of death | |||||||||||||
| Cancer |
69 |
5.57 |
171 |
13.76 |
50 |
4.02 |
643 |
51.73 |
21 |
1.68 |
289 |
23.25 |
1243 |
| Cardio-vascular disease |
208 |
24.92 |
129 |
15.46 |
42 |
5.03 |
175 |
20.97 |
4 |
0.44 |
277 |
33.19 |
835 |
| Neurological disease |
68 |
11.02 |
146 |
23.59 |
42 |
6.79 |
183 |
29.57 |
5 |
0.76 |
175 |
28.27 |
619 |
| Infectious disease |
63 |
21.01 |
64 |
21.43 |
15 |
5.02 |
101 |
33.81 |
3 |
0.99 |
53 |
17.74 |
299 |
| Respiratory disease |
45 |
17.29 |
76 |
29.37 |
11 |
4.25 |
61 |
23.57 |
3 |
1.17 |
63 |
24.35 |
259 |
| Digestive disease |
42 |
25.77 |
27 |
16.53 |
7 |
4.29 |
47 |
28.78 |
1 |
0.75 |
39 |
23.88 |
163 |
| Mental or psychiatric disorder |
7 |
5.57 |
24 |
19.85 |
10 |
8.27 |
38 |
31.43 |
1 |
0.97 |
41 |
33.91 |
121 |
| Other cause |
64 |
19.28 |
45 |
13.55 |
21 |
6.33 |
64 |
19.28 |
0 |
0.00 |
138 |
41.57 |
332 |
| . |
11 |
20.26 |
5 |
9.49 |
2 |
3.80 |
14 |
26.58 |
0 |
0.00 |
21 |
39.87 |
53 |
| p value |
|
<0.0001 |
|
<0.0001 |
|
0.1918 |
|
<0.0001 |
|
(0.0728) |
|
<0.0001 |
|
|
Incurable disease | |||||||||||||
| Yes |
235 |
9.63 |
434 |
17.79 |
120 |
4.92 |
982 |
40.25 |
29 |
1.17 |
640 |
26.23 |
2440 |
| No |
303 |
23.09 |
224 |
17.06 |
72 |
5.48 |
319 |
24.29 |
9 |
0.68 |
386 |
29.39 |
1313 |
| . |
38 |
21.92 |
31 |
17.78 |
7 |
4.05 |
26 |
14.82 |
0 |
0.00 |
72 |
41.43 |
173 |
| p value | <0.0001 | 0.5357 | 0.5044 | <0.0001 | 0.2138 | 0.0231 | |||||||
All percentages are weighted for non-response, to ensure there are representative of the initial. The percentage cannot be derived from the absolute unweighted absolute numbers. The p values are obtained with a Fisher exact test. Due to some cells with small numbers, some assumptions of a chi2 test are complied with.