End-of-life care preferences of the general public and recommendations of healthcare providers: a nationwide survey in Japan

Table 2 Characteristics of the respondents

General public
		General public (n = 973)
		n	%
Gender	Male	535	55.0
Gender	Female	411	42.2
Age	20–39	148	15.2
	40–64	354	36.4
	65–74	236	24.3
	75-	212	21.8
Education	Junior high school	109	11.2
	High school	328	33.7
	College	178	18.3
	University/Graduate school	329	33.8
Living with family	Yes	774	79.5
Death of a close person in the past 5 years	Yes	391	40.2
Family doctor	Yes	403	41.4
Healthcare providers	Physicians (n = 1039)		Nurses (n = 1854)		Care staff (n = 752)
Healthcare providers	n	%	n	%	n	%
Years of practice
1–15	139	13.4	317	17.1	386	51.3
16–30	392	37.7	895	48.3	334	44.4
31-	481	46.3	612	33.0	29	3.9
Workplace
Hospital	652	62.8	838	45.2	n.a^b	n.a^b
Clinic	337	32.4	300	16.2	n.a^b	n.a^b
Long-term care facility	n.a^b	n.a^b	194	10.5	340	45.2
Care home	n.a^b	n.a^b	199	10.7	396	52.7
Visiting nurse office	n.a^b	n.a^b	210	11.3	n.a^b	n.a^b
Other	10	1.0	63	3.4	6	0.8
Participation in a nationwide training program	205	19.7	164	8.8	26	3.5
Frequency of caring for dying patients
At least one patient per month	403	38.8	549	29.6	115	15.3
One patient per 6-months	230	22.1	631	34.0	349	46.4
One patient per year	131	12.6	270	14.6	200	26.6
Rarely	225	21.7	337	18.2	72	9.6
EOLD^a with patient
To a sufficient extent	281	27.0	324	17.5	139	18.5
To some extent	385	37.1	809	43.6	280	37.2
Not much.	135	13.0	301	16.2	232	30.9
Not involved with dying patients	196	18.9	354	19.1	89	11.8
Identifying the proxy decision maker	830	79.9	1541	83.1	597	79.4
Sharing documented EOLD^a information with the multidisciplinary team	587	56.5	969	52.3	362	48.1

ISSN: 1472-684X