Table 4 Involvement of patients dying from cancer and their families in the end-of-life decision-making process (n = 963)

Involvement of patient and family in the decision-making process
	All cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made		All cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made and patient had capacity			All cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made and patient lacked capacity
		Patient had capacity		Decision discussed with patient with capacity	Decision made in response to explicit request by patient with capacity		Patient without capacity had written advance directive (euthanasia or other)	Decision discussed with family of patient without capacity
Cancer type	n	Weighted %^a	n	Weighted %^a		n	Weighted %^a
All cancer deaths	963	66.2	613	81.7	74.2	272	5.6	64.3
Gastrointestinal	291	65.2	184	82.1	71.7	82	5.7	68.5
Respiratory	233	69.5	158	83.5	74.6	61	5.6	61.0
Genitourinary	178	63.1	109	71.6	73.6	56	1.4	62.5
Breast	71	69.9	44	86.9	77.1	18	5.9	74.9
Haematological	68	61.8	42	92.3	82.3	21	3.1	61.1
Other^b	122	67.1	76	81.2	73.7	34	14.4	59.2
P-value^c		.781		.069	.867		.179	.845

Concerns the most important ELD. More than one response was possible for each case ELD end-of-life decision with possible or certain life-shortening effect
Percentages are row percentages
Not included in table and analyses: missing data for patient had capacity n = 78 (8.1% of all cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made), missing data for decision discussed with patient with capacity n = 2 (0.3% of all cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made and patient had capacity), missing data for decision made in response to explicit request by patient with capacity n = 13 (2.1% of all cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made and patient had capacity), missing data for decision discussed with family of patient without capacity n = 3 (1.1% of all cancer deaths for which at least one ELD was made and patient lacked capacity)
^aPercentages are weighted for the disproportionate stratification and differences in the distribution of mortality characteristics between the response sample and all patient deaths
^b‘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
^cBivariate differences between patients with different cancer types calculated using Pearson’s χ²-tests

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