End-of-life medical decisions in France: a death certificate follow-up survey 5 years after the 2005 act of parliament on patients’ rights and end of life

Pennec, Sophie; Monnier, Alain; Pontone, Silvia; Aubry, Régis

doi:10.1186/1472-684X-11-25

Table 2 Frequency of all the different medical end-of-life decisions in France by patients’ characteristics (non-sudden deaths)

From: End-of-life medical decisions in France: a death certificate follow-up survey 5 years after the 2005 act of parliament on patients’ rights and end of life

	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.

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ISSN: 1472-684X

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