Reasons doctors said contributed to the provision of futile treatment
| Reason | Number of doctors citing reason | Proportion of total sample (n=96) (%) | Number of doctors citing a main reason* | Proportion of those citing a main reason* (n=80) (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor-related factors | 92 | 96 | 44 | 55 |
| Trained to treat | 81 | 84 | 31 | 39 |
| Inexperience with death and dying | 42 | 44 | 3 | 4 |
| Don't want to give up hope | 38 | 40 | 4 | 5 |
| Aversion to death | 37 | 39 | 4 | 5 |
| Worries about legal risk | 29 | 30 | 6 | 8 |
| Poor communication | 28 | 29 | 14 | 18 |
| Doing everything possible | 23 | 24 | 3 | 4 |
| Emotional attachment to patients | 19 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Personality, personal experiences or religion | 12 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Patient-related factors | 87 | 91 | 51 | 64 |
| Family or patient request | 63 | 66 | 33 | 41 |
| Prognostic uncertainty | 47 | 49 | 17 | 21 |
| Lack of information about patient wishes | 36 | 38 | 7 | 9 |
| Hospital-related factors | 65 | 68 | 12 | 15 |
| Specialisation | 27 | 28 | 5 | 6 |
| Medical hierarchy | 26 | 27 | 1 | 1 |
| Hospitals designed to provide acute care so it does | 25 | 26 | 4 | 5 |
| Hard to stop once started | 22 | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Time pressure | 18 | 19 | 3 | 4 |
| After-hours care | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
*Some doctors provided more than one main reason.