Table 4.

Factors associated with the willingness to continue or start life prolonging therapies (belonging to trajectories 3 or 4) compared to withhold or withdraw therapies (belonging to trajectories 1 or 2) in the patient scenario presented by univariate, age-adjusted and multivariable analysis

		Univariate			Age-adjusted			Multivariate
	n	OR	(95% CI)	p	OR	(95% CI)	p	OR	(95% CI)	p
Age continuous, years	692	0.96	(0.95–0.98)	< 0.001
Age				< 0.001						0.002
25–35	52	4.71	(2.35–9.44)					3.19	(1.54–6.57)
35–49	253	1.49	(1.08–2.05)					1.46	(1.03–2.06)
50–67	387	1.00						1.00
Sex				0.796			0.433
Female	425	1.04	(0.77–1.41)		0.88	(0.64–1.21)
Male	267	1.00			1.00
Chief-position				0.013			0.208
No	480	1.51	(1.09–2.11)		1.25	(0.88–1.76)
Yes	205	1.00			1.00
Financial responsibility				0.006			0.083			0.183
No	562	1.75	(1.17–2.62)		1.44	(0.95–2.19)		1.35	(0.87–2.08)
Yes	120	1.00			1.00			1.00
Own advance directive				0.604			0.932
No	638	1.17	(0.65–2.09)		1.03	(0.57–1.86)
Yes	49	1.00			1.00
End-of-life care among relatives				0.066			0.322
No	336	1.32	(0.98–1.79)		1.17	(0.86–1.59)
Yes	352	1.00			1.00
Physician group				< 0.001			< 0.001			< 0.001
Competency in PM	66	1.00			1.00			1.00
Oncologists	92	1.63	(0.78–3.40)		1.39	(0.66–2.93)		1.61	(0.75–3.46)
Internists	150	3.92	(2.00–7.67)		3.85	(1.96–7.57)		4.27	(2.13–8.56)
Surgeons	142	4.53	(2.30–8.90)		4.37	(2.21–8.64)		4.51	(2.25–9.07)
GPs	242	6.27	(3.29–12.0)		5.34	(2.78–10.3)		5.60	(2.85–11.0)

Significant results (p < 0.05) bolded and nearly significant (p < 0.10) shown by italic font

Age-adjusted significant (p < 0.05) or nearly significant (p < 0.10) variables included into the multivariate model. Missing values were not analyzed

PM, Palliative Medicine, GP, General Practitioner