Age and ageing
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We wished to obtain information about the principal and subsidiary diagnoses, sex, age, marital status, religion and background characteristics of Dutch nursing home patients to whom euthanasia/assisted suicide (EAS) was administered. We performed an exploratory, descriptive, retrospective study involving all Dutch nursing home physicians (NHPs) who in September 1990 were members of the Dutch Association of Nursing Home Physicians (NVVA; n = 713). An anonymous printed questionnaire in two parts was used. ⋯ The principal diagnosis for patients who were given EAS was a malignancy, whereas relatively few physically ill nursing home patients die as a result of a malignancy. The patients to whom EAS was administered were younger and more often male. EAS patients had been in the nursing home for a shorter time than the other somatic (physically disabled) patients who died during the study period.