Table 2

Characteristics associated with recognising/not recognising death in the near future before the last week of life in patients who died non-suddenly at home/in a care home, n = 252^a

				Logistic regression^b odds ratio (95% CI)
Patient and care characteristics	Total %	Did not recognise death in the near future (n = 154), %	Recognised death in the near future (n = 93), %	Univariate analyses	Multivariate analyses^c
Age, years
1–64	20	18	24	1
65–85	41	37	47	0.93 (0.5 to 1.8)	^d
≥85	39	45	29	0.46 (0.2 to 0.9)	^d

Sex
Male	45	44	47	1
Female	55	56	53	0.88 (0.5 to 1.5)	^d
Education	48	53	42	1
Elementary
Secondary	39	36	43	1.50 (0.8 to 2.7)	^d
Tertiary	13	11	16	1.80 (0.8 to 4.1)	^d

Dutch nationality
≥1 parent	94	96	90	1
≤1 parent	6	4	10	2.58 (0.9 to 7.5)	^d

Primary cause of death
Cancer	38	25	59	1	1
Not cancer	62	75	41	0.23 (0.1 to 0.4)	0.29 (0.2 to 0.5)

Dementia diagnosed by a physician
No	88	85	93	1
Yes	12	15	7	0.38 (0.2 to 1.0)

Admitted to hospital and/or ICU in the last 30 days of life
No	55	55	55	1
Yes	45	45	45	0.99 (0.6 to 1.7)	^d

Palliative care initialisation (before the last week of life)
No	75	65	85	1
Yes	25	35	15	0.32 (0.1 to 1.0)	^d

GP–patient communication prior to the last week of life

GP discussed the diagnosis
No	48	55	38	1
Yes	52	45	62	1.93 (1.1 to 3.3)	^d

GP discussed the prognosis
No	44	53	30	1
Yes	56	47	70	2.68 (1.5 to 4.7)	^d

GP discussed the incurability
No	44	53	30	1
Yes	56	47	70	2.68 (1.5 to 4.7)	^d

GP discussed palliative care options
No	55	67	35	1	1
Yes	45	33	65	3.73 (2.1 to 6.5)	2.37 (1.3 to 4.4)

ICU = intensive care unit.
↵a Includes five missing values; percentages of missing observations variables ranged between 0.4% and 5.6%.
↵b Dependent variable: patients in whom GPs recognised death in the near future before the last week of life n = 93, reference group: patients in whom GPs did not recognise death in the near future before or in the last week of life n = 154
↵c Stepwise backwards logistic regression. Variables removed after three steps of the backward analyses. Significant values are in bold.
↵d Not entered/retained following multiple backwards logistic regression analyses.