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Table 2 Background characteristics of physicians (n = 1354)a

From: Public and physicians’ support for euthanasia in people suffering from psychiatric disorders: a cross-sectional survey study

 

General practitioners

Elderly care physicians

Medical specialists

Psychiatrists

N = 607

N = 209

N = 331

N = 207

No. (%)

No. (%)

No. (%)

No. (%)

Demographics

 Gender

  Male

260 (43.3)

80 (38.5)

198 (60.0)

122 (59.5)

  Female

341 (56.7)

128 (61.5)

132 (40.0)

83 (40.5)

 Age in years

  < 40

167 (27.5)

28 (13.4)

88 (26.6)

20 (9.6)

  40–54

280 (46.1)

105 (50.2)

176 (53.2)

103 (49.8)

  ≥ 55

160 (26.4)

76 (36.4)

67 (20.2)

84 (40.6)

 Religious belief

  No

398 (66.6)

130 (62.5)

241 (73.7)

117 (57.9)

  Yes

200 (33.4)

78 (37.5)

86 (26.3)

85 (42.1)

Professional characteristics

 Years of experience

  < 10

142 (23.4)

22 (10.5)

65 (19.6)

46 (22.2)

  ≥ 10

465 (76.6)

187 (89.5)

266 (80.4)

161 (77.8)

 Palliative care education

  No

261 (43.6)

76 (36.9)

257 (77.9)

195 (96.1)

  Yes

338 (56.4)

130 (63.1)

73 (22.1)

8 (3.9)

 Consultant palliative care/member palliative care team

  No

597 (98.5)

181 (87.9)

309 (93.9)

202 (99.5)

  Yes

9 (1.5)

25 (12.1)

20 (6.1)

1 (0.5)

 SCEN physician

  No

580 (95.7)

194 (94.2)

325 (99.1)

199 (98.0)

  Yes

26 (4.3)

12 (5.8)

3 (0.9)

4 (2.0)

 Ever received an explicit EAS request

  No

42 (6.9)

49 (23.4)

182 (55.2)

111 (58.1)

  Yes, but never performed EAS

92 (15.2)

60 (28.7)

73 (22.1)

73 (38.2)

  Yes, and ever performed EAS

472 (77.9)

100 (47.8)

75 (22.7)

7 (3.7)

 Received an EAS request from a psychiatric patient in the past year

  No

564 (95.4)

196 (95.6)

325 (99.4)

164 (83.7)

  Yes

27 (4.6)

9 (4.4)

2 (0.6)

32 (16.3)

 Ever performed EAS on request from a psychiatric patientb

  Nee

572 (95.2)

199 (95.2)

327 (99.1)

184 (96.3)

  Ja

29 (4.8)

10 (4.8)

3 (0.9)

7 (3.7)

  1. a Number of missing varied between 0 (0%) and 35 (2.6%)
  2. b General practitioners, medical specialists and elderly care physicians were asked whether they found it conceivable that they would perform EAS in patients with psychiatric disorders. This specification, ‘in patients with psychiatric disorders’, was omitted for psychiatrists, as they presumably do not receive EAS requests from patients without psychiatric disorders