Old age and forgoing treatment: a nationwide mortality follow-back study in the Netherlands

Background The ageing of the population raises the need to study forgoing treatment decisions among older people. Aim To describe the incidence and decision-making of forgoing treatment and identify age-related differences. Methods A nationwide study of a stratified sample from the Statistics Netherlands death registry to which all deaths were reported in 2010. All attending physicians of those deaths received a questionnaire about end-of-life decisions. 6600 cases were studied. We examined three age groups: 17–64, 65–79, and 80 and above. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identif... Mehr ...