Table 4

Association between labelling and willingness* to report ‘other’ hypothetical end-of-life cases

n = 2976†n/N‡,¶p Value**
Act was labelled as:<0.01
Euthanasia380/44187
Ending of life345/60956
Palliative or terminal sedation114/12019.6
Other10/4017
Alleviation of symptoms21/6852.2
  • *Willingness to report hypothetical potentially life-shortening practices in which the physician’s intention, the types of drugs used, the time until death, the patient’s life expectancy prior to the act, and the type of request systematically varied.

  • †The total number of studied cases, concerning the 47 ‘other’ hypothetical cases.

  • ‡Unweighted, absolute numbers.

  • ¶‘n’ includes the number of cases that would (probably) be reported by physicians. ‘N’ includes the number of hypothetical cases labelled as euthanasia (441 cases), ending of life (609 cases) etcetera.

  • §Percentages weighted for different sampling fractions and response rates.

  • **χ2 test to test univariate associations between physicians’ willingness to report and their labelling of cases.