Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is legal in an increasing number of countries, but there are concerns that its availability may compromise access to palliative care. We assessed public interest in MAiD, palliative care, both, or neither, and examined characteristics associated with this interest.
Methods We surveyed a representative sample of the adult Canadian public, accessed through a panel from May to June 2019. Weighted generalised multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to determine characteristics associated with interest in referral to palliative care, MAiD, or both, in the event of diagnosis with a serious illness.
Results Of 1362 participants who had heard of palliative care, 611 (44.8% weighted (95% CI 42.1% to 47.5%)) would be interested in both MAiD and palliative care, 322 (23.9% (95% CI 21.5% to 26.2%)) palliative care alone, 171 (12.3% (95% CI 10.5% to 14.1%)) MAiD alone and 258 (19.0% (95% CI 16.9% to 21.2%)) neither. In weighted multinomial logistic regression analyses, interest in both MAiD and palliative care (compared with neither) was associated with better knowledge of the definition of palliative care, older age, female gender, higher education and less religiosity; interest in palliative care alone was associated with better knowledge of the definition of palliative care, older age, female gender and being married/common law; interest in MAiD alone was associated with less religiosity (all p<0.05).
Conclusions There is substantial public interest in potential referral to both MAiD and palliative care. Simultaneous availability of palliative care should be ensured in jurisdictions where MAiD is legal, and education about palliative care should be a public health priority.
- Supportive care
- Terminal care
- Education and training
Data availability statement
Data are available upon request.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Data availability statement
Data are available upon request.
Footnotes
Twitter @gary_rodin, @ZimmTeamLab
Contributors YQC contributed to data curation, writing of original draft and critical revision of manuscript. KM contributed to analysis and interpretation of data, writing of original draft and critical revision of manuscript. AA-A contributed to interpretation of the data, and critical revision of the manuscript. AP and NS contributed to conception and design, methodology, data curation, project administration and critical revision of manuscript. JW contributed to conception and design, collection of data and critical revision of manuscript. JM contributed to interpretation of the data and critical revision of the manuscript. DH, BH and GR contributed to conception and design, interpretation of the data, and critical revision of manuscript. GKS and ML contributed to interpretation of the data, and critical revision of manuscript. LL contributed to conception and design, methodology, formal statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, writing of the original draft, and critical revision of manuscript. CZ contributed to conception and design, methodology, obtaining funding, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of original draft and critical revision of manuscript.
Funding This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant number 152996; CZ), the Ontario Medical Association, and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. CZ is supported by the Harold and Shirley Lederman Chair in Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, a joint Chair among the University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre/University Health Network and the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
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