Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28733295›Full record

Observational studyBMJ open2017

The impact of healthcare professionals' personality and religious beliefs on the decisions to forego life sustaining treatments: an observational, multicentre, cross-sectional study in Greek intensive care units.

Asimenia Ntantana, Dimitrios Matamis, Savvoula Savvidou, Kyriaki Marmanidou, Maria Giannakou, Μary Gouva, George Nakos, Vasilios Koulouras

Open access · goldAbstract readMulticenter StudyObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in BMJ open, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
19citing papers in PubMed
3.5field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

19 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
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  7. Review
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  10. Survey of End-of-Life Care in Intensive Care Units in Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2022
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Religion may play an important role for patients, families, and doctors at the end of life.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2021
    Article
  13. Article
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  16. Decision-making in the ICU: An analysis of the ICU admission decision-making process using a '20 Questions' approach.The Southern African journal of critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Society · 2020
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Asimenia NtantanaICU "Papageorgiou" General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Dimitrios MatamisICU "Papageorgiou" General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Savvoula SavvidouICU "Papageorgiou" General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Kyriaki MarmanidouICU "Papageorgiou" General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Maria GiannakouICU AHEPA University Hospital of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Μary GouvaTechnological Educational Institutes of Ipeirus, Thanaseika, Greece.
George NakosICU University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
Vasilios KoulourasICU University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
Papageorgiou General Hospital · GRUniversity Hospital of Ioannina · GRAHEPA University Hospital · GR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo assess the opinion of intensive care unit (ICU) personnel and the impact of their personality and religious beliefs on decisions to forego life-sustaining treatments (DFLSTs).

settingCross-sectional, observational, national study in 18 multidisciplinary Greek ICUs, with >6 beds, between June and December 2015.

participants149 doctors and 320 nurses who voluntarily and anonymously answered the End-of-Life (EoL) attitudes, Personality (EPQ) and Religion (SpREUK) questionnaires. Multivariate analysis was used to detect the impact of personality and religious beliefs on the DFLSTs.

resultsThe participation rate was 65.7%. Significant differences in DFLSTs between doctors and nurses were identified. 71.4% of doctors and 59.8% of nurses stated that the family was not properly informed about DFLST and the main reason was the family's inability to understand medical details. 51% of doctors expressed fear of litigation and 47% of them declared that this concern influenced the information given to family and nursing staff. 7.5% of the nurses considered DFLSTs dangerous, criminal or illegal. Multivariate logistic regression identified that to be a nurse and to have a high neuroticism score were independent predictors for preferring the term 'passive euthanasia' over 'futile care' (OR 4.41, 95% CI 2.21 to 8.82, p<0.001, and OR 1.59, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.72, p<0.05, respectively). Furthermore, to be a nurse and to have a high-trust religious profile were related to unwillingness to withdraw mechanical ventilation. Fear of litigation and non-disclosure of the information to the family in case of DFLST were associated with a psychoticism personality trait (OR 2.45, 95% CI 1.25 to 4.80, p<0.05).

conclusionWe demonstrate that fear of litigation is a major barrier to properly informing a patient's relatives and nursing staff. Furthermore, aspects of personality and religious beliefs influence the attitudes of ICU personnel when making decisions to forego life-sustaining treatments.

Indexed as

Attitude of Health PersonnelDecision MakingLife Support CarePersonalityReligionTerminal CareTreatment RefusalAdultCross-Sectional StudiesFamilyFemaleGreeceHumansIntensive Care UnitsMaleMedical FutilityDecisions to foregolife sustaining treatment (DFLST)End-of-Life (EoL)personalityreligiousness

Identifiers

PMID28733295
PMCPMC5577864
OpenAlexW2737704907

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.