Table 3.
Reasons for end-of-life decisions in patients dying from cancer (n = 963)
| Reasons for ELD | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical suffering | No prospect of improvement | Wish of the patient | Expected further suffering | Life not to be prolonged needlessly | Expected poor quality of life | Wish of the family | Loss-of-dignity | Mental suffering | Unbearable situation for relatives | |
| Cancer type | Weighted %a | |||||||||
| All cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made (n = 963) | 76.8 | 66.9 | 43.0 | 38.6 | 38.4 | 36.5 | 28.0 | 21.9 | 21.5 | 12.4 |
| Gastrointestinal (n = 291) | 71.8 | 65.1 | 41.9 | 35.8 | 32.1 | 37.4 | 23.8 | 21.6 | 19.6 | 10.5 |
| Respiratory (n = 233) | 78.9 | 70.0 | 46.2 | 43.4 | 42.7 | 40.9 | 29.5 | 18.6 | 22.6 | 10.8 |
| Genitourinary (n = 178) | 79.9 | 62.7 | 40.4 | 34.3 | 43.4 | 35.6 | 29.2 | 25.1 | 20.7 | 10.9 |
| Breast (n = 71) | 87.0 | 72.4 | 45.4 | 48.5 | 29.7 | 31.5 | 30.3 | 25.5 | 32.6 | 10.4 |
| Haematological (n = 68) | 71.0 | 78.6 | 45.9 | 53.8 | 43.5 | 46.1 | 25.5 | 24.8 | 23.9 | 23.4 |
| Otherb (n = 122) | 77.5 | 60.4 | 40.0 | 26.0 | 39.2 | 23.0 | 33.4 | 20.5 | 17.3 | 16.9 |
| P-valuec | .115 | .130 | .853 | .003 | .098 | .034 | .559 | .723 | .322 | .054 |
Concerns the most important ELD. More than one reason was possible for each case
Percentages are row percentages ELD end-of-life decision with possible or certain life-shortening effect
Not included in table and analyses: ‘other’ category reasons for ELDs n = 15 (1.6% of all cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made), missing data for reasons for ELDs n = 77 (8.0% of all cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made)
aPercentages are weighted for the disproportionate stratification and differences in the distribution of mortality characteristics between the response sample and all patient deaths
b‘Other’ category includes head and neck; bone and articular cartilage; skin; eye, brain, and central nervous system; thyroid and endocrine glands; ill-defined, secondary and unspecified sites; independent (primary) multiple sites
cBivariate differences between patients with different cancer types calculated using Pearson’s χ2-tests. Bold denotes significance at p < .05