The engagement of psychiatrists in the assessment of euthanasia requests from psychiatric patients in Belgium: a survey study

Table 1 Psychiatrists’ demographics and professional characteristics (N/%)^a

Variables	Sample (N = 178) (N^o and %)
Gender
Male	100	56.2
Female	75	42.1
Unknown	3	1.7
Age (in years)
< 30	27	15.1
30–40 years	39	21.9
41–60 years	64	36.0
> 60	48	27.0
Worked as psychiatrist or psychiatric trainee during last year
Yes	161	90.4
No	16	9.0
Unknown	1	0.6
Clinical setting^b
Private or Group Practice	80	44.9
Psychiatric Hospital Care	120	67.4
Community Mental HealthCare Center	22	12.4
Psychiatric Nursing Home	9	5.1
Psychiatric Home Care	6	3.4
Sheltered housing	12	6.7
Other^c	26	14.6
Work experience (in number of years)
< 5 years	32	18.0
6–10 years	20	11.2
11–20 years	41	23.0
> 20 years	85	47.8
Ever received special training in EOL
Yes	9	5.1
No	167	93.8
Unknown	2	1.1
Readiness to be involved in euthanasia procedure(s)
Yes	149	83.7
No	29	16.3

^aIn the online survey tool, explicit consent from the respondent had been asked by inserting the question “Do you agree to take part in this survey?” immediately after the informed consent statement and right before the start of the survey. If respondents clicked the option “no”, they have been sent directly to the ‘Non-response Questionnaire’ and only asked to clarify their motives for non-response. Hence, no other data (e.g. sex, work experience) was gathered nor included in this Table
^bClose to 43% of the psychiatrists (76 out of 178) indicated to be professionally active in more than one workplace
^cOther workplaces: prison or forensic psychiatric centers, psychiatric and psychosocial rehabilitation centers, psychiatric mobile crisis or response teams, other housing and care centers for other subpopulations (e.g. students, disabled persons)

ISSN: 1471-244X