Collaboration between physicians and a hospital-based palliative care team in a general acute-care hospital in Japan

Table 1 Basic characteristics of study participants according to attitudes toward continual collaboration with PCTs (median with range, or number with %)

		"Continual collaboration"
		Positive n= 124^a	Negative n= 20^a	P-value
Age (in years)		32 (25-65)	38 (29-62)	0.01
Sex	male	80 (65%)	18 (90%)	0.04
	female	44 (36%)	2 (10%)
Position	intern^b	37 (30%)	0 (0%)	0.01^e
	resident^c	32 (26%)	7 (35%)
	supervisory physician^d	54 (44%)	13 (65%)
Physician experience (in years)		5 (1--40)	11 (3--37)	0.01
Interest in palliative care (scores)^f		6 (1--7)	4 (2--7)	<0.01
Concerns about death (scores)^g		16 (4--28)	16 (4--28)	0.46

^a The totals do not match because of missing values.
^b Approximately 1-2 years after receiving their medical licenses.
^c Approximately 3-5 years after receiving their medical licenses.
^d Approximately 6 years or more after receiving their medical licenses.
^e Analysis of interns and residents versus supervisory physicians.
^f Answers ranged from "none" (1 point) to "definite" (7 points) with respect to interest in palliative care.
^g Concerns about death was selected from the Death Attitude Inventory and each item was rated on a scale from "applicable" (1 point) to "inapplicable" (7 points), and scores on concerns about death reflect total points for the four items.

ISSN: 1472-684X