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Table 3 Attitudes of physicians who were willing or unwilling to increase the morphine dose in 1999 and 2015

From: Changes in attitudes towards hastened death among Finnish physicians over the past sixteen years

 

1999

Increasing the morphine dose

2015

Increasing the morphine dose

Attitudes, median VAS (IQR)

Yes

No

P-value*

Yes

No

P-value*

Active euthanasia is reprehensible

37

(11–69)

14

(5–39)

< 0.001

33

(5–72)

24

(4–64)

0.162

Withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments is reprehensible

92

(83–96)

88

(72–95)

0.003

95

(80–99)

93

(75–98)

0.133

Assisted suicide is reprehensible

27

(9–61)

11

(4–28)

< 0.001

28

(2–68)

10

(1–49)

< 0.001

End-of-life care is satisfying

38

(19–51)

34

(18–52)

0.683

16

(2–30)

14

(3–45)

0.363

People should pay costs of factitious diseases by themselves

40

(23–65)

47

(29–75)

0.047

78

(49–94)

77

(47–93)

0.341

Advance directives have been helpful in my decisions

31

(10–55)

36

(15–54)

0.199

12

(2–29)

10

(2–28)

0.723

Good palliative care enables good death

19

(10–25)

16

(9–29)

0.833

4

(1–13)

4

(1–13)

0.869

Physicians can’t estimate cancer pain

35

(22–70)

41

(27–71)

0.056

44

(23–69)

50

(29–74)

0.006

Religion has influence when I make ethical decisions

77

(44–94)

57

(30–92)

0.040

86

(49–98)

78

(45–98)

0.130

Being a doctor gives me satisfaction

21

(11–29)

19

(11–30)

0.456

7

(1–19)

7

(2–18)

0.928

My health is excellent

21

(10–35)

20

(10–31)

0.273

15

(5–27)

14

(06–25)

0.751

I feel burn out, tired to work

84

(68–93)

84

(62–94)

0.701

88

(75–96)

89

(70–97)

0.843

I’m pleased with my salary

77

(51–90)

70

(35–87)

0.082

22

(8–50)

22

(7–51)

0.759

It is waste of resources to treat patients over 80 years of age in ICU

70

(48–86)

73

(49–87)

0.262

82

(54–94)

75

(54–91)

0.107

  1. VAS visual analogue scale
  2. IQR interquartile range
  3. ICU intensive care unit
  4. *Mann-Whitney U-test
  5. Attitudes expressed on a visual analogue scale (VAS) from 0 mm (definitely agree) to 100 mm (definitely disagree)