IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v60y2005i9p1961-1974.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Physicians' attitudes towards end-of-life decisions: a comparison between seven countries

Author

Listed:
  • Miccinesi, Guido
  • Fischer, Susanne
  • Paci, Eugenio
  • Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje D
  • Cartwright, Colleen
  • van der Heide, Agnes
  • Nilstun, Tore
  • Norup, Michael
  • Mortier, Freddy

Abstract

In the context of an European collaborative research project (EURELD), a study on attitudes towards medical end-of-life decisions was conducted among physicians in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Australia also joined the consortium. A written questionnaire with structured questions was sent to practising physicians from specialties frequently involved in the care of dying patients. 10,139 questionnaires were studied. Response rate was equal to or larger than 50% in all countries except Italy (39%). Apart from general agreement with respect to the alleviation of pain and symptoms with possible life-shortening effect, there was large variation in support--between and within countries--for medical decision that may result in the hastening of death. A principal component factor analysis found that 58% of the variance of the responses is explained by four factors. 'Country' explained the largest part of the variation of the standardized factor scores.

Suggested Citation

  • Miccinesi, Guido & Fischer, Susanne & Paci, Eugenio & Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje D & Cartwright, Colleen & van der Heide, Agnes & Nilstun, Tore & Norup, Michael & Mortier, Freddy, 2005. "Physicians' attitudes towards end-of-life decisions: a comparison between seven countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(9), pages 1961-1974, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:9:p:1961-1974
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(04)00472-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Førde, Reidun & Aasland, Olaf Gjerløw & Falkum, Erik, 1997. "The ethics of euthanasia--Attitudes and practice among Norwegian physicians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 887-892, September.
    2. Christakis, N.A. & Asch, D.A., 1995. "Physician characteristics associated with decisions to withdraw life support," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 85(3), pages 367-372.
    3. F. Mortier & J. Bilsen & R. H. Vander Stichele & J. Bernheim & L. Deliens, 2003. "Attitudes, Sociodemographic Characteristics, and Actual End-of-Life Decisions of Physicians in Flanders, Belgium," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 23(6), pages 502-510, November.
    4. Anderson, James G. & Caddell, David P., 1993. "Attitudes of medical professionals toward euthanasia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 105-114, July.
    5. Blackhall, Leslie J. & Frank, Gelya & Murphy, Sheila T. & Michel, Vicki & Palmer, Joycelynne M. & Azen, Stanley P., 1999. "Ethnicity and attitudes towards life sustaining technology," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(12), pages 1779-1789, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cohen, Joachim & Van Wesemael, Yanna & Smets, Tinne & Bilsen, Johan & Deliens, Luc, 2012. "Cultural differences affecting euthanasia practice in Belgium: One law but different attitudes and practices in Flanders and Wallonia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 845-853.
    2. Eliason, M. & Ohlsson, H., 2013. "Timing of death and the repeal of the Swedish inheritance tax," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 113-123.
    3. Van Wesemael, Yanna & Cohen, Joachim & Bilsen, Johan & Smets, Tinne & Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje & Distelmans, Wim & Deliens, Luc, 2012. "Implementation of a service for physicians’ consultation and information in euthanasia requests in Belgium," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 272-278.
    4. Seale, Clive, 2009. "Hastening death in end-of-life care: A survey of doctors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 1659-1666, December.
    5. Tran Kiem Hao & Nguyen Huu Son, 2018. "Mortality Pattern at Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Of Hue Central Hospital, Vietnam," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 11(5), pages 8750-8753, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Intima Alrimawi & Ahmad Rajeh Saifan & Raghad Abdelkader & Abdul‐Monim Batiha, 2018. "Palestinian community perceptions of do‐not‐resuscitation order for terminally Ill patients: A qualitative study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(13-14), pages 2719-2728, July.
    2. Rietjens, Judith A.C. & van der Heide, Agnes & Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje D. & van der Maas, Paul J. & van der Wal, Gerrit, 2005. "A comparison of attitudes towards end-of-life decisions: Survey among the Dutch general public and physicians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(8), pages 1723-1732, October.
    3. Nur Baykara & Tuğhan Utku & Volkan Alparslan & Mustafa Kemal Arslantaş & Nermin Ersoy, 2020. "Factors affecting the attitudes and opinions of ICU physicians regarding end-of-life decisions for their patients and themselves: A survey study from Turkey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, May.
    4. Rietjens, Judith A.C. & Deschepper, Reginald & Pasman, Roeline & Deliens, Luc, 2012. "Medical end-of-life decisions: Does its use differ in vulnerable patient groups? A systematic review and meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(8), pages 1282-1287.
    5. Winter, Laraine & Parker, Barbara, 2007. "Current health and preferences for life-prolonging treatments: An application of prospect theory to end-of-life decision making," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1695-1707, October.
    6. Vrakking, Astrid M. & van der Heide, Agnes & van Delden, Johannes J.M. & Looman, Caspar W.N. & Visser, Michelle H. & van der Maas, Paul J., 2005. "Medical decision-making for seriously ill non-elderly and elderly patients," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 40-48, December.
    7. Cohen, Joachim & Marcoux, Isabelle & Bilsen, Johan & Deboosere, Patrick & van der Wal, Gerrit & Deliens, Luc, 2006. "European public acceptance of euthanasia: Socio-demographic and cultural factors associated with the acceptance of euthanasia in 33 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 743-756, August.
    8. Danyliv, Andriy & O'Neill, Ciaran, 2015. "Attitudes towards legalising physician provided euthanasia in Britain: The role of religion over time," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 52-56.
    9. Amitabh Chandra & Jonathan Skinner, 2003. "Geography and Racial Health Disparities," NBER Working Papers 9513, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Klitzman, Robert L. & Daya, Shaira, 2005. "Challenges and changes in spirituality among doctors who become patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(11), pages 2396-2406, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:9:p:1961-1974. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.