Table 1 Characteristics of patients dying from cancer in 2013 in Flanders, Belgium (n = 1394)

From: End-of-life decision-making across cancer types: results from a nationwide retrospective survey among treating physicians

Cancer type

 

All cancer deaths

(n = 1394)

Gastrointestinal

(n = 417)

Respiratory

(n = 334)

Genitourinary (n = 252)

Breast

(n = 113)

Haematological

(n = 106)

Othera

(n = 172)

 

Characteristics

Weighted %b

P-valuec

Age at death, years

1–64

24.1

21.4

31.1

10.0

31.5

16.6

37.2

<.001

65–79

41.0

42.4

45.9

41.9

42.3

29.6

33.4

 

 ≥ 80

34.9

36.2

22.9

48.1

26.2

53.8

29.4

 

Sex

Male

57.1

57.9

71.0

60.3

0.0

62.7

58.3

<.001

Female

42.9

42.1

29.0

39.7

100.0

37.3

41.7

 

Living situation

Alone

22.2

21.1

21.3

25.1

22.6

26.3

18.9

.025

In household with others

66.2

68.9

70.8

60.9

60.4

54.9

70.2

 

Institution

11.6

9.9

7.9

14.0

16.9

18.8

10.9

 

Marital status

Single

8.2

9.7

8.6

4.1

6.1

9.7

10.4

.001

Married

55.1

55.3

60.1

56.8

49.5

43.8

53.9

 

Widowed

26.9

27.6

17.5

30.3

37.6

37.8

24.1

 

Divorced

9.8

7.4

13.8

8.8

6.9

8.7

11.6

 

Place of death

At home

30.6

29.7

36.0

29.9

26.3

19.2

33.7

.002

Hospital

58.0

59.2

57.3

54.2

56.9

66.3

56.7

 

Care home

11.5

11.2

6.7

15.8

16.8

14.5

9.7

 

Treating physician

Clinical specialist

55.4

54.5

56.9

51.8

53.1

65.6

54.6

.310

General practitioner

44.6

45.5

43.1

48.2

46.9

34.4

45.4

 
  1. Percentages are column percentages
  2. Not included in table and analyses: ‘other’ category for living situation n = 5 (0.4% of all cancer deaths), missing data for living situation n = 10 (0.7% of all cancer deaths), ‘unknown’ category for marital status n = 4 (0.3% of all cancer deaths), ‘other’ category for place of death n = 34 (2.4% of all cancer deaths), missing data for place of death n = 1 (0.1% of all non-sudden cancer deaths), ‘other’ category for treating physician n = 61 (4.4% of all cancer deaths), missing data for treating physician n = 18 (1.3% of all cancer deaths). a‘Other’ category includes head and neck; bone and articular cartilage; skin; eye, brain and central nervous system; thyroid and endocrine glands; ill-defined, secondary and unspecified sites; independent (primary) multiple sites
  3. bPercentages are weighted for the disproportionate stratification and differences in the distribution of mortality characteristics between the response sample and all patient deaths
  4. cBivariate differences between patients with different cancer types are calculated using Pearson’s χ2-tests. Bold denotes significance at p < .05
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