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Table 1 Background characteristics

From: Prevalence and characteristics of older adults with a persistent death wish without severe illness: a large cross-sectional survey

Aspects and items

Active

persistent death wish, no severe illness

N = 155

(0.7% of 21,294)

Passive

persistent death wish, no severe illness

N = 93

(0.4% of 21,294)

Persistent

death wish

(passive/active

nature unknown), no severe illness

N = 19

(< 0.1% of 21,294)

Total group “Persistent

death wish, no severe illness”

(PDW-NSI)

N = 267

(1.25% of 21,294)

Answer “No” to differentiation question: Does the description “seeing no future for oneself, longing for death, while not being severely ill” apply to you?

N = 20,883

(97.8% of 21,294)

P-value

PDW-NSI

group

vs.

Diff. question

= No

P-value

Active

vs.

Passive

Gender

Female

87 (56.1)

50 (53.8)

12 (63.2)

149 (55.8)

10,500 (50.3)

0.074

0.792

Male

68 (43.9)

43 (46.2)

7 (36.8)

118 (44.2)

10,383 (49.7)

Age (years)

Median (Q1-Q3)

64 (60–72)

67 (60.5–74)

68 (61–75)

65 (60–73)

65 (60–72)

0.161

0.267

55–59

37 (23.9)

18 (19.4)

3 (15.8)

58 (21.7)

5119 (24.5)

60–64

44 (28.4)

19 (20.4)

3 (15.8)

66 (24.7)

4569 (21.9)

65–69

21 (13.5)

19 (20.4)

6 (31.6)

46 (17.2)

4156 (19.9)

70–74

23 (14.8)

16 (17.2)

2 (10.5)

41 (15.4)

3977 (19.0)

75–79

16 (10.3)

12 (12.9)

4 (21.1)

32 (12.0)

1796 (8.6)

80–84

8 (5.2)

6 (6.5)

0 (0.0)

14 (5.2)

890 (4.3)

85–89

4 (2.6)

3 (3.2)

1 (5.3)

8 (3.0)

320 (1.5)

90–94

2 (1.3)

0 (0.0)

0 (0.0)

2 (0.7)

51 (0.2)

95–99

0 (0.0)

0 (0.0)

0 (0.0)

0 (0.0)

5 (< 0.1)

Educational attainmenta

Low

54 (34.8)

37 (39.8)

7 (36.8)

98 (36.7)

7018 (33.6)

0.288b

0.507c

Middle

59 (38.1)

27 (29.0)

11 (57.9)

97 (36.3)

7554 (36.2)

High

41 (26.5)

27 (29.0)

1 (5.3)

69 (25.8)

6213 (29.8)

Unknown

1 (0.6)

2 (2.2)

0 (0.0)

3 (1.1)

98 (0.5)

Worldviewd

Religious worldview

52 (31.9)

45 (45.0)

9 (45.0)

106 (37.5)

517 (49.1)

0.002

0.023

Non-religious worldview

49 (30.1)

27 (27.0)

5 (25.0)

81 (28.6)

200 (19.0)

0.000

0.776

Worldview, religiousness unknown

8 (4.9)

3 (3.0)

0 (0.0)

11 (3.9)

44 (4.2)

1.000

0.544

No worldview

54 (33.1)

25 (25.0)

6 (30.0)

85 (30.0)

293 (27.8)

0.327

0.208

Number of childrene

0

31 (26.5)

20 (26.7)

5 (35.7)

56 (27.2)

124 (16.3)

0.000

0.734

1

14 (12.0)

14 (18.7)

1 (7.1)

29 (14.1)

96 (12.6)

2

56 (47.9)

29 (38.7)

7 (50.0)

92 (44.7)

329 (43.1)

3 or more

16 (13.7)

12 (16.0)

1 (7.1)

29 (14.1)

214 (28.0)

Household size (number of persons)

1

84 (54.2)

46 (49.5)

9 (47.4)

139 (52.1)

5259 (25.2)

0.000

0.504

2

58 (37.4)

39 (41.9)

10 (52.6)

107 (40.1)

12,480 (59.8)

3 or more

13 (8.4)

8 (8.6)

0 (0.0)

21 (7.9)

3144 (15.1)

Social classf

Low

78 (50.3)

49 (52.7)

15 (78.9)

142 (53.2)

8406 (40.3)

0.000

0.934

Middle

26 (16.8)

12 (12.9)

0 (0.0)

38 (14.2)

3171 (15.2)

High

51 (32.9)

32 (34.4)

4 (21.1)

87 (32.6)

9306 (44.6)

Urbanizationg

Very high

39 (25.2)

35 (37.6)

3 (15.8)

77 (28.8)

3829 (18.3)h

0.001

0.187

High

52 (33.5)

23 (24.7)

8 (42.1)

83 (31.1)

7290 (34.9)

Moderate

26 (16.8)

15 (16.1)

4 (21.1)

45 (16.9)

3813 (18.3)

Low

28 (18.1)

12 (12.9)

3 (15.8)

43 (16.1)

4223 (20.2)

None

10 (6.5)

8 (8.6)

1 (5.3)

19 (7.1)

1722 (8.2)

  1. Results are presented as N (%) unless “Median (Q1-Q3)” is reported
  2. Percentages may not add up to 100% because of rounding
  3. Medians are reported with 25th–75th percentiles
  4. N/A = not applicable
  5. Statistically significant results (p < 0.05) are in bold
  6. aLow = lower vocational education, lower secondary education, or less; Middle = intermediate vocational education or higher secondary education; High = higher vocational education or university; Unknown = I do not know/want to answer
  7. bN = 21,049 because category “Unknown” was not included in the test
  8. cN = 245 because category “Unknown” was not included in the test
  9. dReligious worldview = Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist. Non-religious worldview = atheist, agnostic, “spiritual but not religious”, humanist, anthroposophical and esoteric. Worldview, religiousness unknown = other worldview. Respondents could give more than one answer and may thus be counted in more than one category. Therefore, N = 163, N = 100, N = 20, N = 283, N = 1054 (comparison group) respectively and percentages are based on these numbers. In group comparisons, worldview is tested with separate tests for each category (yes/no)
  10. eN = 117, N = 75, N = 14, N = 206, N = 763 (comparison group) respectively for the groups, due to missing values for “number of children”
  11. fBased on educational attainment and profession of the main breadwinner
  12. gVery high= > 2500; High = 1500–2500; Moderate = 1000–1500; Low = 500–1000; None= < 500 addresses per km2
  13. hN = 20,877 in this column due to 6 missings for this variable