Norwegian Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Assisted Dying: A Cross-Sectional Study

Figures & data

Table 1 How Many Times a Request Was Received from a Patient Requesting Assisted Dying^a

	0	1–3	4–8	9 or More	Total	Chi Squared p-value
Total	87 (42%)	65 (32%)	38 (19%)	15 (7%)	205 (100%)
Gender						0.287
Female	77 (42%)	56 (31%)	35 (19%)	14 (8%)	182 (100%)
Male	4 (24%)	9 (53%)	3 (18%)	1 (6%)	17 (100%)
Age						0.625
20–29 years	33 (42%)	29 (37%)	13 (17%)	3 (4%)	78 (100%)
30–39 years	22 (43%)	12 (24%)	10 (20%)	7 (14%)	51 (100%)
40–49 years	15 (47%)	10 (31%)	5 (16%)	2 (6%)	32 (100%)
50 years and more	17 (40%)	13 (30%)	10 (23%)	3 (7%)	43 (100%)
Education						0.423
Bachelor’s degree	54 (47%)	31 (27%)	22 (19%)	8 (7%)	115 (100%)
Postgraduate degree	31 (37%)	31 (37%)	16 (19%)	7 (8%)	85 (100%)
Department						0.001
Oncology ward	19 (40%)	17 (36%)	9 (19%)	2 (4%)	47 (100%)
Palliative/team	2 (13%)	8 (50%)	4 (25%)	2 (13%)	16 (100%)
Pulmonary ward	16 (30%)	12 (23%)	15 (28%)	10 (19%)	53 (100%)
Neurological ward	18 (58%)	10 (32%)	3 (10%)	0 (0%)	31 (100%)
Home care district	32 (57%)	16 (29%)	7 (13%)	1 (2%)	56 (100%)
Religiosity						0.755
Non-religious	44 (45%)	28 (29%)	19 (19%)	7 (7%)	98 (100%)
Religious	42 (40%)	37 (36%)	19 (18%)	6 (6%)	104 (100%)

Note: ^aAssisted dying includes both physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Table 2 Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

	Strongly Disagree	Somewhat Disagree	Neither Disagree Nor Agree	Somewhat Agree	Strongly Agree	Total
1) Physician-assisted suicide should be allowed for persons who have a terminal illness with a short life expectancy	60 (30%)	12 (6%)	16 (8%)	65 (32%)	49 (24%)	n = 202 (100%)
2) Euthanasia should be allowed for persons who have a terminal illness with a short life expectancy	66 (32%)	18 (9%)	22 (11%)	56 (27%)	42 (21%)	n = 204 (100%)

Table 3 Multivariable Ordinal Regression: “Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Be Allowed for Persons Who Have a Terminal Illness with a Short Life Expectancy”

	Unadjusted			Adjusted
	OR	p-value	95% CI	OR	p-value	95% CI
Gender
Female	1
Male	1.21	0.671	0.50–2.98	0.66	0.434	0.24–1.85
Age		<0.001			<0.001
20–29 years	1
30–39 years	0.43	0.013	0.22–0.84	0.45	0.038	0.21–0.96
40–49 years	0.11	<0.001	0.05–0.26	0.21	0.001	0.08–0.52
50 years or more	0.08	<0.001	0.04–0.17	0.16	<0.001	0.07–0.39
Education
Bachelor’s degree	1
Postgraduate degree	0.21	<0.001	0.12–0.36	0.46	0.019	0.24–0.88
Department		<0.001			0.086
Oncology ward	1
Palliative/team	0.59	0.359	0.20–1.81	0.87	0.833	0.25–3.06
Pulmonary ward	4.90	<0.001	2.33–10.32	2.98	0.008	1.34–6.66
Neurological ward	2.38	0.043	1.03–5.53	1.40	0.474	0.56–3.49
Home care district	2.27	0.025	1.11–4.65	1.78	0.147	0.82–3.90
Religiosity
Non-religious	1
Religious	0.43	0.001	0.26–0.71	0.74	0.321	0.40–1.35
Experience
No	1
Yes	0.92	0.737	0.55–1.52	-	-	-

Table 4 Multivariable Ordinal Regression: “Euthanasia Should Be Allowed for Persons Who Have a Terminally Illness with a Short Life Expectancy”

	Unadjusted			Adjusted
	OR	p-value	95% CI	OR	p-value	95% CI
Gender
Female	1
Male	1.07	0.876	0.44–2.61	0.65	0.422	0.23–1.84
Age		<0.001			<0.001
20–29 years	1
30–39 years	0.50	0.034	0.27–0.95	0.61	0.185	0.29–1.27
40–49 years	0.13	<0.001	0.06–0.29	0.27	0.005	0.11–0.67
50 years or more	0.07	<0.001	0.03–0.15	0.15	<0.001	0.06–0.36
Education
Bachelor’s degree	1
Postgraduate degree	0.16	<0.001	0.09–0.28	0.31	<0.001	0.16–0.60
Department		<0.001			0.005
Oncology ward	1
Palliative/team	0.59	0.341	0.20–1.75	0.76	0.691	0.20–2.87
Pulmonary ward	5.86	<0.001	2.79–12.34	3.51	0.002	1.58–7.81
Neurological ward	1.44	0.384	0.63–3.28	0.76	0.560	0.31–1.90
Home care district	1.99	0.058	0.98–4.06	1.29	0.521	0.59–2.83
Religiosity
Non-religious	1
Religious	0.50	0.007	0.30–0.83	0.87	0.644	0.48–1.58
Experience
No	1
Yes	0.97	0.907	0.59–1.60	–	–	–